


Iron Maiden

by RoseyPoseyPie



Series: Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Amputation, Awesome Pepper Potts, Canon-Typical Violence, Car Accidents, Car Chases, Comic Book Science, Dress Up, F/F, Female Tony Stark, Genderbending, Genius Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Sex, Iron Man 1, Kidnapping, Lesbian Tony Stark, Mutual Pining, Pre-Iron Man 1, Prosthesis, Protective Tony Stark, Ransom, Slow Burn, Swearing, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, corporate shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-06-18 21:19:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15494907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseyPoseyPie/pseuds/RoseyPoseyPie
Summary: Toni Stark. Visionary. Genius. American patriot. Even from an early age, the daughter of legendary weapons developer Howard Stark quickly stole the spotlight with her brilliant and unique mind. At age four, she built her first circuit board. At age six, her first engine. And at 17, she graduated summa cum laude from MIT. Then, the passing of a titan. Howard Stark's lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder, until, at age 21, the prodigal daughter returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries.Except Toni was never the perfect daughter for her father's legacy. Bold and rebellious since she was shipped off to boarding school, and far too fond of the company of women for the media to handle. After a trip to Afghanistan gone wrong, Toni returns with a heavy heart and a few missing parts. Full of guilt, Toni works on fixing what her father couldn't.Heroes aren't born. They're built.





	1. Origin

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I made a Toni Stark Playlist to listen to while you read:
> 
> [Toni Stark's Tunes](https://8tracks.com/roseyposeypie/toni-stark-s-tunes?utm_medium=referral&utm_content=mix-page&utm_campaign=embed_button) from [RoseyPoseyPie](http://8tracks.com/roseyposeypie?utm_medium=referral&utm_content=mix-page&utm_campaign=embed_button) on [8tracks Radio](https://8tracks.com?utm_medium=referral&utm_content=mix-page&utm_campaign=embed_button).

Antoinette Edith “Toni” Stark was born March 29th, 1970. She was the daughter and only child of the inventor and engineer, Howard Anthony Walter Stark. Howard was fifty-three years old when his daughter was born, as his wife Maria was two decades his junior. He had already designed a legacy of technological innovation and brilliance when he brought his daughter to the world. Toni was equally brilliant, impassioned, and driven. However, her father had little time for her as he was always focused on creating, expanding, and moving forward. At age four, after building her first circuit board, Toni was sent to The Schillan School, an all-girls liberal arts boarding school in Manhattan. She learned to play the piano, speak Spanish, and build an engine from scratch at age six. With her rapid understanding, she soared through her lower level curriculum and was sitting in a classroom with teenagers by the time she was nine. She studied Greek, Latin, French, chemistry, physics, biology, calculus, statistics, economics, finance, history, literature, religion, rhetoric, philosophy, Musical Theater, and even elemental computer science. She managed to hack into the Pentagon on a school Macintosh because of an out-of-hand game of truth or dare in her dorm. The other thing that she learned at the all-girls school was that she was very attracted to girls. Being young, smart, and gay was a poor recipe to having close friends at The Schillan School, but she didn’t appreciate the company of her peers, to begin with.

 

  
With Advanced Placement testing and her perfect SAT score, she tested out of all of the college general education requirements by the time she started at MIT at age fourteen. Finally, when she moved to Massachusetts, did her father allow her to be no longer followed everywhere by a nanny. It was at MIT that Toni met her favorite person on the planet: James Rupert “Rhodey” Rhodes. James Rhodes by any usual meter was young and brilliant, having skipped two grades and gone to MIT at sixteen, but Toni was already halfway to her bachelor degree when he started. She was studying robotic engineering and computer science, while he was studying aeronautical and astronautical engineering. They had a passionate rivalry and a more profound friendship. Undoubtedly, if Toni or Rhodey were heterosexual, they would have fallen madly in love. Toni instead focused her devotion into her creations. She won competitions, was featured in articles, and graduated summa cum laude with two bachelor’s degrees at age seventeen, but her father was still as distant and indifferent as ever.

 

  
Rhodey went into the Air Force after he received his degree, per the requirements of his massive scholarships. With more money than what could be spent in ten lifetimes at her disposal, Toni continued her education in graduate school and was quickly approaching the milestone of two master’s degrees. She could have continued to receive doctorates, but the year was 1991, and in December her parents were in a terrible car accident in Long Island. Neither survived. She was now the owner of the massive weapons conglomerate, Stark Industries. Obadiah Stane was the interim CEO of Stark Industries as she finished graduate school and coped with her grief, and then she took over as CEO a few days before turning twenty-two.

 

  
She was the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history. Haunted by the ghosts of her past in New York, she built a mansion in Malibu, California and moved her operations to a sunny beach where she could yell into a phone about corporate statistics in a bikini while holding a mimosa in the other hand. After the passing of her childhood friend and butler, Edwin Jarvis, she developed the first advanced Artificial Intelligence: Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. With Rhodey climbing the ranks of the Air Force, he became a liaison for Stark Industries and managed for Toni to receive billions of dollars in government contracts to develop state-of-the-art weapons systems.

 

The media wanted for their precious corporate princess to have a fairytale romance, and tabloid articles with badly-photoshopped pictures of her and Rhodey started the misconception that the pair was madly in love. Stories of their close friendship and rivalry in college didn’t help quell the rumors. Rhodey and Toni didn’t dispel the rumors and went to public events together, allowing Rhodey to not be surrounded by rumors in the military and allowing Toni the freedom to finally experience her sexuality clandestinely without the paparazzi following her around looking for a boyfriend, and boy did she experience it. Something about a wealthy, aloof, and arrogant corporate heiress with a rocker-chic pixie cut made Toni near-irresistible to a slew of experimental models and actresses. If the media found out, she would be a “slutty d*ke.” Of course, if she were a man, she would be a typical playboy.

 

  
In the eyes of the public, the relationship between Toni Stark and Lt. Col. James Rhodes fizzled to friendship after three years of dating and going nowhere. In reality, the military was starting to question if they should be giving money to a woman who was “dating” the man who was in charge of the money. Toni wasn’t really in love with him anyway, and she was more than happy to put the company first. She learned that if she were careful, it would be unlikely for the women she saw to brag about it, and she carried on.

 

* * *

 

 On a rainy day in March of 2002, Toni was finalizing a merger with a conglomerate in steel and aluminum manufacturing, AL Steel. Rumor had it that the company was slipping, and Toni hoped that giving them a substantial offer would make it easier for Stark Industries to internalize capital goods and resources and reduce the importing costs of overseas assets. It had gotten messy when the company looked at her offer and demanded an extra forty million on the deal. When Toni asked to see some reasoning behind these demands, the lawyers dumped eight file cabinets of financial reports and a vague summary that basically demanded the extra money in the deal. With only a week to make or break the contract, Toni had a legion of financial analysts as well as J.A.R.V.I.S. checking the files to see if Stark Industries could come to the same conclusion. J.A.R.V.I.S. had an algorithm malfunction that Toni would have to remember to fix, and now she had eighteen hours left and the only people she could depend on were her employees. It was her worst nightmare. Obie had told her it was best if she just dropped the money on the merger before Hammer Industries started complaining to the FTC about it, but there was something undeniably suspicious about the deal. She hated corporate politics, if it were up to her, she would live in her workshop.  
There was a knock on her door. She turned around and looked at the intruder. It was a woman, with a messy ginger bun, a wrinkled button-up blouse, and a dark skirt. She had nylon stockings on, but no shoes. Her badge said she worked in the financial sector. She had a large binder she was clutching to her chest like a lifeline. She was panting hard.

 

  
“Hi?” Toni asked. “You can come in.”

 

  
“Miss Stark, Ma’am,” The woman said. “I’m Virginia Potts, I’m employed in the financial sector. You have me working with the team going over the research for the-”

 

“AL Steel Merger,” Toni said. “Yes, I know what jobs I assign.”

 

Virginia Potts closed her eyes and seemed to scold herself, “Right, well, I found something… weird. And my superior said that it wasn’t worth our attention, but I respectfully disagreed, and, well-”

 

“Cut the-” Toni waved a hand dismissively. “What did you find?”

 

“Can I sit?” Potts asked. Toni nodded. Potts sat down and opened the binder. A series of photocopied pages from the documents given by AL Steel. There were post-it notes in neat but scratchy handwriting on various pages. “For the last five years, AL Steel has been decreasing in profits due to the influx of foreign steel and aluminum, which is why they say they want to merge. That is documented here and here,” She flipped between a few graphs with her quick analysis on sticky notes in the margins. “But the claim that the company’s assets and projected profits make it worth 200 million in the merger is ridiculous. First of all, the assets they’re reporting in their summary are an average of between 1995 and 2000. I couldn’t find in all of those documents any assets reported since 2000, but I did check with the SDC database for mergers and acquisitions, and AL Steel has been restructuring and selling various failing steel and aluminum plants. A total of six plants in the last two years to other American manufacturers, earning them about twenty-five million.” Potts showed Toni a variety of reports she printed. “Which I checked, and they actually counted in their profits that they gave us, classifying the transactions as products they sold and not, you know, acquisitions of property. So I re-crunched the data, and I factored in the reduced production from their reduced functioning plants.” Potts flipped to several pages of graphing paper with her math on them. “So really, them asking for two-forty is ridiculous when with assets, profits, and holdings they’re really only worth one-twenty, with generosity.” As Potts explained this, she spoke so rapidly only someone like Toni could have understood her.

 

“Virginia Potts, right?” Toni asked, actually impressed with an employee for once. Just then, the head of her financial department, Mr. Loomis, hurried into the office with security at his tail. His face was redder and puffier than usual, and his combover was at an odd angle. Potts backed into Toni’s desk.

 

“You! That’s her! I am so sorry, Miss Stark, this woman is insane. She attacked me in my office and ran up here-”

 

“I thought you and Loomis respectfully disagreed,” Toni said to Potts.

 

“It's not like I just started whaling on him - he grabbed me first, I just keep pepper spray in my bag-”

 

“She’s not even a financial analyst!” Loomis said. “She’s my secretary. She’s been sneaking around all week, and then showed up in my office an hour ago saying she’s ‘figured it out’ I told her that I may look over her analysis after the team had their meeting before you spoke to the lawyers. She wasn’t satisfied with my answer-”

 

“You threw my binder in the trash and told me my job is to make coffee!” Potts exclaimed. “And when I pulled it out of the trash you grabbed me, so I pepper sprayed you and ran-”

 

“Shut up,” Toni said, massaging her temples. “J.A.R.V.I.S. can you pull up security footage from Loomis’ office?”

 

“There’s a camera in there?” Loomis asked, jolting.

 

“The only rooms that don’t have cameras are the bathrooms,” Toni said. “Why does that make you nervous, Loomis?”

 

“I may have-” Loomis stopped. “Miss Potts is honest. But she was very unreasonable.”

 

“You know what I think is unreasonable, Loomis? The fact that I have thirty-something financial analysts and consultants in your department, and it was your secretary who checked the SDC databases and saw some erroneous reporting. What do you have them doing?”

 

“We were double checking all of the reports, ma’am.”

 

“Double checking?”

 

“To make sure that their math and reporting was all correct.”

 

“Right, and that took your team five days?”

 

“The number of documents they gave us would take two weeks to properly comb through-”

 

“So why did you decide to only pursue the option that you couldn’t even complete? Is it really better to half-complete one lead than try some other ones?”

 

“It’s the standard process-”

 

“You’re fired,” Toni said.

 

“Ma’am, I’ve been working with your father since 1986-”

 

“Well, Daddy was an asshole whose favorite day was sending me to boarding school, and I’m eager for new blood at Stark Industries. Security, oversee him clean out his desk.” Loomis and the security left. Toni turned to Potts, who was still sitting across from her. “Miss Potts, I don’t like being lied to.”

 

“I technically didn’t lie, ma’am-”

 

“I know,” Toni said. “I can’t have you working as a secretary here anymore. Nobody sane is going to want you after you maced your last boss.”

 

“I understand, ma’am,” Potts looked down. “I’ll get my things.”

 

“Good, move them to that desk in the corner,” Toni said, pointing to the barren desk that hadn’t been used in two years.

 

“Ma’am? You said nobody here would want me.”

 

“Nobody sane,” Toni said. “Sanity was never one of my well-regarded qualities. I appreciate that you had the common sense to tell your boss when they’re wrong. Everyone’s always tripping over themselves to please me, I’m a tough love kinda gal. Just promise me you’re not going to pepper spray me, Pepper Potts.”

 

“It’s Virginia”

 

“Yes, Virginia,” Toni said. “Look, I can’t stand my own name being Antoinette. Would you rather I called you just ‘Miss Potts’?”

 

“Pepper is fine,” Potts said. “It’s better than what my mom calls me.”

 

“Good,” Toni said. “One last question, Pepper Potts, where are your shoes?”

 

“I kicked them off in the hall,” Pepper Potts admitted. “So I could run faster.”

 

Toni smiled. She liked Pepper Potts. Mainly because the woman had just saved her over a hundred million dollars in the acquisition.

 

* * *

 

 

 A video was playing in a well-decorated ballroom in Caesar’s Palace. Images of Toni’s childhood flashed on the screen as a man’s overlayed voice spoke. “Toni Stark. Visionary. Genius. American patriot. Even from an early age, the daughter of legendary weapons developer Howard Stark quickly stole the spotlight with her brilliant and unique mind. At age four, she built her first circuit board. At age six, her first engine. And at 17, she graduated summa cum laude from MIT. Then, the passing of a titan. Howard Stark's lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder, until, at age 21, the prodigal daughter returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries. With the keys to the kingdom, Toni ushers in a new era for her father's legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, satellite targeting. Today, Toni Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe.”

 

The video ended, and Rhodey stepped onto the stage, he cleared his throat, “As liaison to Stark Industries, I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot. She is my closest friend and the prettiest girl I’ve ever dated. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year's Apogee Award to Miss Toni Stark.”

 

Toni had probably drunk a glass more of champagne than was wise, but she still managed to gracefully walk onto the stage in her tall heels and accept the award. “Thank you, Rhodey. You’re also my closest friend, but I can’t say you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever dated.” People laughed. Nobody but Rhodey knew that she was literal. “Thank you all for this prestigious award. It’s an honor. The apogee award is known to be given to gifted artists, and I have to say, I know I’m gifted. I was happier, however, that the foundation recognizes that what I do is art because that’s always what it’s been to me. My designs, my innovations, they’re always just me chasing perfection. So, again, thank you.”

 

An hour later, she and Rhodey were walking out of the casino. She had drunk another glass of champagne and was now tripping over her feet.

 

“Unbelievable,” Rhodey said. “You told me that if I presented you with the award, you’d be deeply honored.

 

“I am deeply honored,” Toni said. “I’m drinkin’ because of all the honor.”

 

“How drunk are you?”

 

“Not as drunk as I seem,” Toni smiled. “The feet always go first, you know that, honey bear. After all, I’m just the prettiest woman you’ve ever dated.”

 

“You know why I said that.”

 

“Because it’d be emasculating to admit I’m better than you at everything,” Toni said.

 

“Whatever,” Rhodey said. “You’re mean when you’re drunk, I know that I’m not taking it personally. Tomorrow, don’t be late.”

 

“Only fashionably,” Toni called, sauntering off flawlessly. She tossed the apogee award into a garbage can on her way out. She reached her chauffeur, Happy, and was halfway into getting into the car when she was interrupted.

 

“Miss Stark!” A woman called from behind Toni. “Excuse me, Miss Stark. Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair magazine. Can I ask you a couple of questions?”

 

“She’s cute,” Happy said.

 

“She’s alright?” Toni asked, turning around. Christine was cute. Blonde hair, square jaw, green eyes, full lips. Toni might say that the girl was her type, but most girls were her type. “Hi,” Toni said. She waved Happy off. Happy knew the drill and took his car.

 

“Hi,” Christine said.

 

“Okay, go,” Toni said.

 

Christine took a deep breath and prepared herself. “You’ve been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?”

 

“Absolutely ridiculous, I don’t paint.”

 

“And what do you say to your other name?” Christine asked. “The Princess of Death?”

 

“Why do all powerful women have to be compared to royalty but powerful men can just be?” Toni asked.

 

“Are you saying you weren’t born into your wealth and status?”

 

“I may have been born rich, but I made myself richer, didn’t I?” Toni asked.

 

“So, you’re proud of your riches to more riches story?” Christine asked.

 

“What’s more American?” Toni replied questioningly, smiling. “Now, as for the ‘death’ part, it’s an imperfect world, Miss Everhart. But, it’s the one we got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals.”

 

“Rehearse that much?” Christine asked.

 

“Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime,” Toni quipped.

 

“I can see that.”

 

“I can show you, too, if you want,” Toni said.

 

“All I want is a serious answer,” Christine replied.

 

“Okay, here’s for serious,” Toni said. “Stark Industries has advanced medical technology, fed thousands with intellicrops, and is at the forefront of clean energy. How do we do all of that? Military funding. It’s expensive to do good, and the military is a generous provider. I give them an inch, they give me a mile, and the world becomes a better place.” Toni climbed into her car and closed the door.

 

“You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?” Christine asked loudly.

 

Toni rolled down the window and leaned out of the car. She looked at Christine and gave her a broad smile. “You know, Miss Everhart, I’d be prepared to lose a few with you.”

 

“Are you propositioning me, Miss Stark?” Christine Everhart asked, stepping closer.

 

“Am I?” Miss Stark asked. The passenger door opened by itself. Christine was shocked, flattered, and in the passenger seat before Toni could blink.

 

The drive to the airport was followed by a short flight in Toni’s private jet, which was followed by a second drive to her Malibu beach house. The entire time, Christine was asking Toni some off-the-record questions between intense kissing. Mostly about if she did this often if she had really dated Rhodes, why she kept it quiet.

 

“Miss Everhart, I’m a powerful woman,” Toni said, gasping after a particularly long kiss on the way to Toni’s bedroom. “The only reason half the men I know listen to me is that they think they can have me. It’s strategic, more than anything.” She smiled. “What about you? Are you experienced with women?”

 

Christine looked away and blushed.

 

“Oh, that’s fine,” Toni said. “Most girls aren’t. Which is a pure tragedy, because most of them really like it.” She leaned closer to Christine and nuzzled her ear, pressing gentle kisses to the pulse on her neck.

 

Christine moaned, “Aren’t you worried someone will out you?” Her breath hitched as Toni nipped at her neck.

 

“Well, most of the people who know are the girls who know,” Toni smiled. “They’re not eager to admit what they like. And you know, most of them understand.”

 

“Yeah,” Christine nodded before pulling Toni back to her by the straps of her dress. Toni pushed inside the room with Christine attached to her lips and started unbuttoning her blouse and cupping her breasts through the fabric. They made it to the bed, where Toni taught an eager-to-learn Christine how to use a dental dam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. Feedback is always welcome. Kudos/Comments are always appreciated!


	2. Metamorphosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who commented and liked this, I'm so pleased to know that this little story is entertaining you guys.

“Give me an exploded view,” Toni told J.A.R.V.I.S. “Alright, the compression in cylinder three appears to be low. Log that.”

 

As she was working, Pepper Potts walked into Toni’s workshop, on the phone with someone. “I’m gonna try again, right now,” She said as she adjusted Toni’s music.

 

“Please don’t turn down my music,” Toni said.

 

“I’ll keep you posted,” Pepper said to the phone. She hung up and crossed her arms, “You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now.”

 

“How’d she take it?” Toni asked, referring to Christine who had spent the night but been asked to leave in the early morning.

 

“Like a champ.”

 

“Why are you trying to hustle me outta here?” Toni asked.

 

“Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago.” Pepper reminded her.

 

“That's funny, I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me to get there-” Toni said.

 

“-Toni, I need to speak to you about a couple things before I get you out of the door-” Pepper interrupted her.

 

However, Toni was still set on the plane, “-Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?” She knew she would have to depart soon, so she started cleaning up her workshop. She had a method to her madness.

 

Pepper sighed and started down her checklist, “Larry called. He's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. Do you want it? Yes or no.”

 

“Is it a good representation of his spring period?” Toni asked.

 

“No. The Springs was actually the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked, not ‘spring’ like the season. So?” Pepper asked pointedly.

 

“I think it’s a fair example. I think it’s incredibly overpriced. I have more money than I know what to do with. Buy it. Store it.”

 

“Okay,” Pepper said, checking it off her list. “The MIT commencement speech-”

 

“Is it June. Please, don't harangue me about stuff that's way, way, down-”

 

“Well, they’re haranguing me, so I’m going to say yes.”

 

“Deflect it and absorb it. Don’t transmit it back on me. I pay you to make better decisions for me than I could make for myself.”

 

“I need you to sign this before you get on the plane,” Pepper said.

 

“What are you trying to get rid of me for? What, you got plans?” Toni teased.

 

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

 

“I don’t like it when you have plans.”

 

“I’m allowed to have plans on my birthday.”

 

“Right, the same day as last year,” Toni said. “Get yourself something nice from me.”

 

“I already did,” Pepper said. “After all, I make better decisions for you than you could make for yourself.”

 

“Well, was it nice?”

 

“It was very nice,” Pepper said.

 

“Good, you deserve it,” Toni said.

 

Pepper stopped. Then she smiled, “Thank you, Miss Stark.”

 

“You’re welcome, Miss Potts.”

 

* * *

  

Rhodey was upset to see that Toni arrived at the airport three hours late. “What’s wrong with you?” He asked her.

 

“Fashionably late,” Toni shrugged. “I got caught up doing a piece for Vanity Fair.”

 

“For three hours, for three hours you got me standing here.” Rhodey shook his head.

 

“Waiting on you now,” Toni said, surging past him. She was in desert business chic: a tan women’s pantsuit, a white button-up blouse, and nude heels. Toni was barely five-foot-four and needed towering heels to look men in the eyes. They settled into the plane, where they were waited on by well-dressed women and given all they needed. Rhodey was still upset.

 

“You don’t respect yourself, so I know you don’t respect me,” Rhodey said.

 

“I respect you,” Toni said.

 

“I’m just your babysitter,” Rhodey said. “So when you need your diaper changed, let me know, and I’ll get you a bottle, okay?”

 

“You fix a dirty diaper with a bottle?” Toni asked.

 

“Okay, what I mean is-”

 

“Rhodey, I think you’d be terrible with babies,” Toni said.

 

Toni managed to drink a bit on the flight over, and even get Rhodey to drink a bit, which was always funny. However, by the time they reached Afghanistan, Toni was more than ready to meet the military officials. The General and his staff greeted her politely, and she settled into position for her presentation.

 

“Is it better to be feared or respected?” Toni asked the men. “I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line. It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Daddy did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves. For your consideration, the Jericho.” Toni raised her arms dramatically as the missiles went off in the background. The blast from a mile away made her stumble, and the hats fly off of the heads. They were impressed, “I’ll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of five-hundred million or more. To peace,” She picked up a drink and toasted, drowning it in moments.

 

Her phone started to buzz. She picked it up and answered it. The voice of her mentor, Obadiah Stane, greeted her. “Toni,” he said.

 

“Obie, what’re you doing up?” She asked.“I couldn't sleep till I found out how it went. How'd it go?” He asked eagerly. She smiled.

 

“It went great. Looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas,” She told him.

 

“Hey! Way to go, sweetheart! I'll see you tomorrow, yeah? Good night, Toni,” Obie said.

 

Toni went to get into a Humvee. Rhodey came with him, but she turned him away, “This is the fun-vee. The hum-drum-vee is back there.”

 

“Nice job,” Rhodey said sincerely.

 

“See you back at base,” Toni said. She got into the Humvee. There were two male soldiers and a female soldier. They commenced the drive to the base in complete silence.

 

“I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!” Toni called, looking at the name on the uniform she could see.

 

“We can talk, ma’am,” the soldier, Forrest, said.

 

“Oh, I see. So it’s personal?” Toni asked.

 

“No,” The woman driving said. “You intimidate them.”

 

“That’s the goal, isn’t it?” Toni grinned. “Then they listen to you.”

 

“Ma’am,” The other soldier said. “Is it cool if I take a picture with you?”

 

“Yes it’s very cool,” Toni said. The other soldier handed his camera to Forrest. “I don’t want to see this on your MySpace page,” She said. The soldier put up a peace sign.

 

“Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace.”

 

“Come on. Hurry up. Just click it. Don't change any settings,” The soldier said to his buddy, Forrest. Before the picture could be taken, there was a massive explosion which sent the Humvee swerving. Gunshots resounded. Toni screamed.

 

“What’s going on?” She shouted.

 

“Contact left!”

 

“What have we got?!” Toni asked.

 

The female driver stepped out and was immediately shot down.

 

“Jimmy, stay with Stark!” Forrest exclaimed, getting out of the car.

 

“Stay down!”

 

“Yeah,” Toni agreed weakly. Forrest got to the left side when he too was shot down.

 

“Son of a bitch!” The kid Toni was supposed to be taking a picture with, Jimmy, said. He opened the car door and started to get out.

 

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, give me a gun!” Toni begged.

 

“Stay here!” Jimmy said. He got inches out of the car before he was gunned too. The bullets pierced the car doors. The noise roared in her ears. She was utterly discombobulated, but she knew one thing. Toni wasn’t safe in there. She opened the right door and crawled across the sand to stay low. She managed to find cover behind a rock and pulled out her phone, trying to call Rhodey.

 

There was a whooshing sound through the air, and a crunch in the sand beside Toni. She saw a bomb in the dirt beside her. The Stark Industries Logo was proudly on one side. She didn’t really know what she was thinking, she wanted it away from her, so she kicked at it. Hard. It rolled a few yards to her right before blowing up. Pain shot up her legs, up her spine, up her chest. She screamed, then everything went black.

 

The next things she knew were pure pain. She remembered coming in and out of consciousness. Her legs, arms, and chest were all on fire, and she was gasping for stale air before the pain drew her back to unconsciousness. She remembered waking up, panting and screaming, and then being forced back to sleep with strong hands and a damp cloth over her mouth. The smell seared her nostrils, and the fumes made the room fuzzy and spin, and the pain numbed until she felt nothing, she was nothing. 

 

* * *

 

When she finally did wake up, she was cold. She felt the puff of warm air on her lips as she exhaled and saw white, translucent tendrils drift through the darkness. There was something in her nose, taped in her right nostril. She felt the little tube in her throat, and in her chest, and in her stomach. Part of her brain reminded her it was probably a feeding tube, but an overwhelming part wanted it out of her body, so she peeled the tape from her nose and pulled. The slick feeling of the little tube working its way through her body was unpleasant several times over, but she was satisfied when she could throw it onto the ground and breath through her nose, unobstructed. The throbbing pain in her chest and legs was still overwhelming, she reached at a table beside the cot she was laying it, trying to feel what was on it in the dark. Something metal clattered to the floor. She rolled carefully to her left side, coughing through the pain when she saw him.

 

There was a man in here with her. He was a few feet away, using the light from a fire near his feet to guide him as he shaved in a cracked mirror, humming to himself. She rolled again, to get out of bed, and a series of wires connected to her chest held her back. Something heavy was on her right, keeping her tethered.

 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” The man said politely, but scenarios and fears were sprinting through Toni’s mind, she couldn’t help but panic. Slowly, she rolled onto her back and turned to look at her right. There was a car battery sitting on a workbench beside her. The wires were connected to something hard and metallic on her chest. No, not on, in her chest. She started ripping at the bandages wrapped around her, gasping and grunting through the pain. A cylinder was in her chest. It was made of dark, tarnished metal was probably filthy, had wires and screws sticking out of the top, and was embedded in her chest. It had cut straight through her sternum and sat in the valley between her breasts. Around the cylinder, her skin was pulled taught and streaked in blood. At the perimeter of the cylinder, her skin was itching because there were large, crusted scabs. Stitches ran across each breast, they had performed a partial mastectomy to make room for this thing in her chest.

 

“Here,” the man said, handing her a piece of paper with random scribbles. Was it some sort of design? He turned to a pot in the fire at their feet and began to stir something inside it. Toni pushed off her elbows, grunting and hissing in pain, and finally sat, hunched in her cot, squinting at the diagram in the dim light. It was something about an electromagnet, and then there were notes on the damage of the blast. Burning and broken bones in her feet, shrapnel in her chest.

 

“What the hell did you do to me?” Toni asked, her voice was raw and scratchy.

 

“What I did?” The man echoed softly. “What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there’s a lot left, and it’s headed to your atrial septum. Here, want to see?” He pulled a glass jar out of his coat pocket and held it up to the light. “I have a souvenir, take a look.” He walked by her and tossed it in her lap. She looked at it. Through the grime on the outside, she could distinctly see several jagged pieces of metal jingling around in the jar. “I’ve seen many wounds like that in my village,” The man explained.

 

“We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs.”

 

“What is this?” Toni asked shortly, referring to her chest. She was sure she knew, but she needed to hear this man say it.

 

“That is an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery, and it’s keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart.”

 

Satisfied, Toni zipped up the sweatshirt that she had been put in, covering her chest and the thing inside it. She looked around the dark room. It seemed like they were in some sort of cave. There was a security camera mounted to the rocks above them. The man saw her looking, turned to see the camera, and turned back.

 

“That’s right, smile,” He said. Toni frowned harder, she hated when people told her to smile. The man grew more serious, “We met once, you know, at a technical conference in Bern.”

 

“I don’t remember,” Toni said shortly.

 

“No, you wouldn’t,” The man agreed. “If I had been that drunk, I wouldn’t have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits.”

 

“Where are we?” Toni asked, looking around the dark cave. She couldn’t deduce anything about it.

 

Just then, there were loud footsteps in the hall. A group of men with scarves wrapped around their faces walked in, holding automatic rifles in Toni’s face. They shouted something Toni didn’t understand. The man yelled back at them, trying to defend her. They yelled again.

 

“They want you to stand up,” the man said.

 

Toni tried to, she swung her heavily-bandaged feet onto the floor and tried to lean forward and put weight on them, the pain was immediate and intense, she screamed through clenched teeth and flung herself back into the cot. The man spoke to their assailants again, in a calm and careful voice. They were upset with what he said, but they seemed to accept it. They hurried off.

 

“They will be back soon,” he said. “You must do as I do. Be polite.”

 

“They had my guns, how did they get my guns?” Toni asked.

 

“Do you understand me? Do as I do.” The man said. It seemed important. Toni nodded.

 

They came back moments later with a crappy, squeaky wheelchair. The metal was rusted, and the seat was stained and frayed. It smelled like it had been pissed on. The man helped Toni move into the wheelchair, the car battery in her lap. They wheeled her out, guns trained on her and the man who helped her. As if she was going to escape well with a battery in her lap and useless feet. They wheeled her through the dark cave, to a circle of light that grew larger and larger. Soon, she was outside. It was sand and cracked, white ground all around them. There were tall mountains on the horizon whichever direction she looked. They were in some sort of rebel compound, with piles of weapons, an array of different vehicles, a legion of men with Stark Industries weapons, and the loud cacophony of these men speaking and yelling at each other. A man walked up to Toni. He seemed to be the leader. He said something in the language she didn’t know.

 

The man who helped Toni seemed to understand, and translated, “He says, ‘Welcome, Toni Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.’ He is honored. He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated, this one,” they pointed to an empty Jericho warhead.

 

The burning desire to refuse outright was stronger than the pain of her injuries, but Toni wasn’t an idiot. Refusing would mean torture, rape, beatings. They didn’t care if she was injured, and they would do whatever they could to keep her feeling weak and small. Cooperation was the only way she had a chance at survival, and Toni wanted to survive.

 

She stayed silent, biting her dry tongue. The superior terrorist cocked his head to one side and asked her a question.

 

“He wants to know what you think.” The man translated for her.

 

“I think you got a lot of my weapons,” Toni answered.

 

The man echoed what she had said in the other language. The terrorist laughed. He started speaking again and nodded for the man to translate for her. “He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make the list of materials. He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you free.” The man explained.

 

“No, he won’t,” Toni said bitterly.

 

“No, he won’t,” The man agreed.

 

Toni nodded at the man, agreeing for a few more days of life. They wheeled her back into the cave. She was feeling both helpless and hopeless. But there was also a bubbling fury in her chest, and she wanted more than anything to burn this compound to the ground and see the look on her captors’ faces. She was full of a sincere, searing desire to spite them and make them ache with pain a thousand times she was experiencing then.

 

* * *

 

  
The man started speaking to her once they returned to their place. She had been sitting, unmoving, in the wheelchair. “I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work, in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Toni Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?”

 

“Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me, you, either way. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week,” Toni replied. The hopelessness was dominant.

 

“Well, then, this is a very important week for you, isn't it?” The man asked. Toni looked up at him and decided that she agreed.

 

She requested more materials than was really needed because she had a second idea in mind. The car battery would run and die, but she knew of something that was much more powerful to keep her alive, and she was the only one who knew how to build one. She also thought of the designs she was working on in her office for mecha suits, the next generation of warfare. Since she couldn’t walk, escaping in something that walked for her would be more than useful. She requested better lighting, welding, soldering and smelting supplies, and a variety of tools she was sure even these men couldn’t get their hands on. The man was helping her, having apparently, nothing better to do. He spoke many languages, but this terrorist compound spoke more. He explained that they were the ten rings, Stark Industries’ “loyal customers.” His name was Yinsen, and he had a family in the village of Gulmira.

 

The primary goal was giving Toni a better source of power. They got palladium from random missiles and warheads, compiling 1.6 grams. With that, Toni built a miniature arc reactor, just like the one powering Stark Industries in California. It was hard to do it wheeling around, and Toni was sorely missing the ability to stand, but when the cylindrical reactor glowed blue, she was flooded with relief.

 

“That doesn’t look like a Jericho missile,” Yinsen said.

 

“That’s because it’s a miniaturized arc reactor, I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart.”

 

“But what could it generate?” Yinsen asked.

 

“If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second.”

 

“That could run your heart for fifty lifetimes,” Yinsen said, impressed.

 

Toni compiled her diagrams on pieces of translucent paper. Overlayed, the design came through. “Yeah, or something big for fifteen minutes,” Toni agreed. She handed Yinsen the papers. “This is our ticket out of here.”

 

“What is it?” Yinsen asked.

 

“Flatten them out and look,” Toni advised.

 

Yinsen did just as she suggested, flattening out the paper and looking at the diagram when all the puzzle pieces were together. “Oh, wow,” He said. “Impressive.”  


They commenced working on Toni’s design, hoping they would finish it before the men came and shot them for not building the Jericho. For the next two and a half months, Toni worked on the suit and the missile. She took a page out of the Odyssey, remembering how Odysseus’ wife would unravel her tapestry at night to delay her marriage to a suitor. Toni was in a bit more of a pickle, but sabotaging her progress on the missile and investing time on the mech suit kept her and Yinsen alive. She hoped she would heal enough to walk, but she didn’t. Her feet were as useless as ever, despite all the dressing and redressing. Yinsen told her that it looked like she was getting infected, but she kept reassuring him that it would be fine once she was free. The rest of her seemed to be healing fine. The scabs around the electromagnet peeled off, revealing inflamed, red scar tissue. The scar faded to pink and to white, but it was thick on her chest. She took the stitches out of her breasts, which were now smaller and misshapen thanks to the surgery. She would have to unpack her new body issues after she got out of the cave.

 

All they had to do was successfully build the suit before the men wanted the missile, bit seemed they were a bit too late. Suddenly, as they were working, a series of men stormed their workshop. They pushed Yinsen down to his chest on the ground and pulled a hot ember out of the fire. The threatener turned to Toni. He looked like the boss of the boss Toni had met earlier. He knew English, too. “The bow and arrow once was the pinnacle of weapons technology. It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to Ukraine: An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire. But today, whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules these lands. And soon, it will be my turn.”

 

“Not to be rude,” Toni said. “But Genghis Khan also was successful because of his brilliant military strategies, his commitment to infrastructure, and his respect for other cultures. What do you want? A delivery date?” She asked. The man put the hot ember closer to Yinsen’s face. “I need him. Good assistant.” She told him. The man looked at her and set the ember right in front of Yinsen.

 

The man turned to her, “You have tomorrow to assemble my missile.” He walked off with his men, leaving Yinsen and Toni to themselves.

 


	3. Liberty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read and provided feedback. It means a lot to me to know that you're enjoying this.

Toni was being put into their mechanical suit. First, she bandaged her hands, arms, legs, and feet with layers of fabric and tape. They slipped a heavy leather jacket around her shoulders, welding gloves on her hands, work pants around her legs, with the ends twisted and tied around her feet. A metal cowl went around her neck. They hoisted the series of metal plates with a pulley system and strapped her inside of them. The arc reactor on her chest was plugged into the suit.

 

“Okay, repeat it,” Toni asked, they were rehearsing the escape route.

 

“41 steps straight ahead. Then 16 steps, that's from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right,” Yinsen was saying as he was bolting her into the suit.

 

The guards eventually realized something suspicious was happening, because they came to the metal door. “Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!” One of them yelled.

 

“Say something, say something back to him,” Toni ordered Yinsen.

 

“He’s speaking Hungarian, I don’t-”

 

“Then speak Hungarian,” Toni said. They were too close to fail now.

 

“Okay,” Yinsen sighed, I know-” He stopped.

 

“What do you know?” Toni asked. Yinsen yelled something in Hungarian. The men weren’t satisfied. They yelled back at him and tried to open the door, where there were explosives in the mechanism. They unlocked the door, broke the current, and the resulting explosion blasted the door off its hinges and splattered the men against the cave walls. “How’d that work?” Toni asked Yinsen with a touch of pride.

 

“My goodness, it worked alright,” Yinsen said.

 

“That’s what I do,” Toni said. “Let me finish this, initialize the power sequence.”

 

“Okay,” Yinsen nodded, clearly rattled.

 

“Now!” Toni barked, she was also feeling the pressure of their escape.

 

“Tell me, tell me,” Yisen said as he reached the computer.

 

“Function 11. Tell me when you see a progress bar… it should be up right now.”

 

“Yes,” Yinsen agreed.

 

“Talk to me, tell me when you see it,” Toni said, voice overlapping with his.

 

“I have it,” Yinsen said.

 

“Press Control and I,” Toni said.

 

“I got it,” Yinsen said, interrupting her command.

 

Toni continued, “I, Enter, I, and Enter. Good, now come over here and button me up.”

 

“Alright,” Yinsen hurried over.

 

“Every other hex bolt,” Toni directed.

 

“They’re coming,” Yinsen warned.

 

“Nothing pretty, just get it done,” Toni said. “Just get it done.” Yinsen kept worrying over the fact that they were coming as he finished bolting Toni into the suit. “Alright, make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?” Toni asked. Yinsen had saved her life several times, she wanted to get out of this cave with him.

 

“We need more time,” Yinsen said, looking at the progress bar. He stood up and turned to Toni, “Hey, I’m going to buy you some time.”

 

“No!” Toni exclaimed. He was going to get himself killed. “Stick to the plan! Stick to the plan!” She called after him. He picked up a gun from one of the assailants and disappeared down a hall. Gunshots echoed. “Yinsen!” She screamed. She was all alone, and the progress bar was only half-done. She had to sit there, watching the bar, as she heard gunshots and screaming grow fainter and fainter. There was a pause in the noise, and then the sound of a dozen guns going off at once.

 

The progress bar was fully loaded, and the lights in the workshop all turned off. The helmet clunked down over her head, and she could finally walk again. With her legs suspended in metal cylinders below the knee, she could walk without the pain of something touching her broken and burned feet. She came clunking out of the workshop, the numbers of steps her sole focus. The men shot at her, but the dense layers of metal protected her. Bullets ricocheted and bounced back at them. The men ran down the hall, trying to put a large door between her and them. She was smiling in her suit. One of them was left behind. He was banging on the door, screaming at his comrades with fear in his eyes as he turned back to look at her. He cowered onto the ground at her feet, and she kicked him into the side of the cave. He crumpled, unconscious. She punched the metal door. It boomed, the reverberating sound echoing through the cave, and the door bent beneath her fish. She hit it again, and again. She saw the bending of the hinges and the dents in the door. With a final kick, the doors were ripped off their hinges and clattered to the ground at her feet. The men with their guns aloft turned and ran. Reinforcements were coming down a hall. She swiped at one, and her metal gauntlet got stuck in the rocky walls. She pulled at it a few times, she saw the reinforcements were running past her and evacuating the cave. One man approached her and shot at her helmet. The bullet deflected off her helmet and hit him in the head. He dropped dead on the ground. She yanked her arm free, the rocks crumbling behind her as she marched out. She turned, and she saw him lying on the ground.

 

“Yinsen!” She shouted.

 

“Watch out!” He warned, coughing up blood. The head terrorist launched a grenade at her. She dodged, and it hit the cave wall behind her, collapsing the deeper parts of the cave. She pulled at a compartment on her forearm, and a missile launched out of it and shot the ceiling above him. The rocks fell, crushing him. She went over to Yinsen, pulling debris off of him. “Stark,” He greeted her. She lifted her face plate.

 

“Come on. We got to go,” She urged. “Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We're gonna stick to it.”

 

“This was always the plan, Stark,” Yinsen rasped. There were splatters of blood across his chest and a growing puddle beneath him.

 

“Come on, you're gonna go see your family. Get up,” She ordered.

 

“My family is dead,” Yinsen admitted. “I'm going to see them now, Stark.” He noticed the expression on her face, she was fighting tears. “It's okay. I want this.” He repeated with more conviction, “I want this.”

 

“Thank you for saving me,” Toni said.

 

“Don’t waste it,” Yinsen begged. “Don’t waste your life.” He gave a final, harsh gasp and harsher exhale. Then he turned his head, and his chest stopped moving. A hard jolt of anger and sadness shot through Toni, and she stood up, lowered her faceplate, and prepared herself. Her steps thundered out of the mouth of the cave. She saw about two dozen men waiting at the entrance. They opened fire. She bowed her head to keep the openings for her eyes clear from the bullets and waited out as the rain of ammunition harmlessly bounced off of her armor, barely denting it. They ran out of shots.

 

“My turn,” she said. She activated the flamethrowers in either arm, sending everything in front of her aflame. The men ran and dodged her burning. Some of them didn’t, and she watched as their faces became as black and charred as her feet. Their clothes were alight, the boxes and crates for weapons warmed caught flame. Plastic containers melted, and anything flammable was soon engulfed with fire. The missiles, explosives, and munitions that littered the mouth of the cave were also eaten by the fire. But the men weren’t done yet. A railgun on a perch started shooting at her, managing to dent her armor and keep her huddled and unmoving. The surviving men began shooting at her, and although nobody hurt her, she couldn’t move. A lucky bullet struck an exposed mechanism in her suit, and one of the legs dropped at the knee, she couldn’t stand up again, but it seemed she didn’t need to. With a final burst of fire, the explosives all began to erupt. She pulled a switch on the inside of her forearm, and the propellant in her boots rocketed her into the sky, as the entire compound exploded behind her. She got far above the mountain peaks when the fuel cut out, and she fell a few hundred feet into the white sand. Her suit took most of the impact and broke around her. Pieces of metal were warped and spread out in the sand around her. Her head was spinning, and her feet were in more pain than ever before. She ached, and her head was spinning from the impact. She leaned back and sighed.

 

“Not bad,” She mumbled to herself.

 

* * *

 

It took her half an hour to finally pull herself out of the wreck that was her suit. She would have to keep moving, undoubtedly reinforcements would come once they settled themselves. She tried to stand, but her feet were in more pain now than ever. She peeled off the yellowing bandages to see exactly how they looked. It wasn’t a pretty sight. The skin was black, brown and green. Her feet were misshapen, and they smelled like something was rotting. The dark wasn’t just from the burns, as the skin climbing up her right leg was dark and splattered in dark purple, lumpy pustules. She rebandaged them, tied her hair up with some fabric she ripped off her shirt and began to crawl through the desert. When she could, she dropped and rolled down sandbanks to conserve energy. She dug her knees and her hands into the hot sand to pull herself up another one, and let herself roll down. Sand was in her mouth and in her eyes, and all over her body, but the mountains were retreating in the distance.

 

There was a loud sound approaching, the beating of helicopter wings, Toni turned to look and saw the US Armed Forces Logo on the side of a helicopter coming her way. She balanced on her knees and waved her hands in the air, trying to get the attention of the helicopter. It landed on a sandbank not far from her, and a team of soldiers and medics descended on her. One of those soldiers was her friend, Rhodey.

  
“How was the fun-vee?” Rhodey asked when he reached her. Toni let out a dry laugh. “Next time, you ride with me, okay?” he asked. Toni nodded.

 

They loaded her onto a bright orange plastic gurney and loaded her into the helicopter. The helicopter took her to a nearby base, where the medics cleaned and wrapped her feet again, and mumbled about infection. Then, a plane took her over the Caspian and Black seas, landing in Germany at a state-of-the-art hospital. The doctors listened to her explain the electromagnet in her heart and agreed that they probably couldn’t do the surgery to reconstruct her sternum and remove the shrapnel with current medical technology. Satisfied she wouldn’t die of a cardiac issue, they dealt with the problem that was her feet.

 

“Between the bones healing improperly, the complete burning, and the infection, I doubt we can save either foot,” The doctors told her. They amputated her feet. Her left foot was cut off just above the ankle. Her right foot and part of her right leg had to be removed, just below the knee. After her surgery, she was in bed for another week. In that week, she was questioned and briefed by the CIA, the NSA, the FBI, Interpol, a NATO task force, a UN committee, and also the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department. Once the doctors told her she was safe to move, she had her private jet at the closest airfield, and she flew back home to California in a motorized wheelchair she controlled with a joystick. They stopped for a fuel refill in Nova Scotia before finally reaching California. Toni looked out the window where she landed. The airfield was clear of the press, but she could see the vans at the gates.

 

  
They had to use a construction elevator to lower her motorized wheelchair to the ground. Happy and Pepper were there, waiting for her at the field. Pepper’s hair was a mess, and her eyes were rimmed with red.

 

  
“Your eyes are red,” Toni said to Pepper. “A few tears for your long-lost boss?”

 

Pepper gave a watery chuckle, “Tears of joy. I hate job hunting.”

 

“Yeah, well, vacation’s over,” Toni said.

 

Happy and Pepper had to help her into the backseat of an SUV. The back row of seats was collapsed, so they had room for her chair. “Where to, ma’am?” Happy asked.

  
“Take us to the hospital, please, Happy,” Pepper said.

 

“No,” Toni said.

 

“No? Toni, you have to go to the hospital.”

 

“No is a complete answer,” Toni said.

 

“A doctor has to look at you!” Pepper insisted.

 

Toni sighed, “I’ve been looked at by doctors non-stop for the last two weeks. Before that, I spent three months in captivity. There are two things that I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger, and I want you to call for a press conference now.”

 

“Call for a press conference?” Pepper queried.

 

“Yep,” Toni confirmed.

 

“What on Earth for?” Pepper asked.

 

“Hogan, drive,” Toni ordered. “Cheeseburger first.”

 

* * *

 

“Look at this! Toni!” Obadiah Stane greeted her at Stark Industries. She had an In-N-Out bag in her lap. She had blown through two cheeseburgers, a basket of fries, and a vanilla milkshake on the way there. She still had another burger to go. She had been decently thin before, but after three months in a cave, her slim build was nearly skeletal. She didn’t care about appearances anymore, she wanted squish and jiggle. “We were going to meet at the hospital,” Obadiah said.

 

“No, I’m fine,” Toni said, her chair zooming on forward.

 

“Yeah, well, look at you! You had to have a burger, yeah? You get me one of those. You shouldn’t overeat.”

 

“There’s only one left, and I need it,” Toni said.

 

“Right,” Obadiah said. People were coming closer as they recognized Toni. “Hey, look who’s here - Yeah!” Obadiah was showing her around like a prized puppy. They entered the lobby of Stark Industries where the press conference was being held. There was a ramp to the stage, and she finally wheeled up. The podium with the microphone was as it always was - adjusted for a woman who could stand. She stationed herself beside the podium and had someone hand her the microphone. 

 

“Hey, would it be alright if everyone sat down?” Toni asked. They were all very interested in the fact she was in a wheelchair, and her legs were covered by a black blanket. Cameras were flashing in her face. “Why don’t you just sit down? That way you can see me and I can - a little less formal and all.” People started to listen to Toni and sat in their seats. “Good to see you, good to see you,” She told the crowd. She took a deep breath, “I never got to say goodbye to Daddy... I never got to say goodbye to my father. There are questions that I would’ve asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what his company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe, he was every inch of the man we all remember from the newsreels.” Toni chuckled to herself. She sighed and looked at the crowd. “I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability.”

 

“Miss Stark!” A reporter shouted.

 

“Hey, Ben,” She greeted him.

 

“What happened over there?” Ben asked.

 

“What happened over there?” Toni echoed. “What happened over there is that I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things blow up. I always said and believed that I needed military projects to be able to fund research for things like medical and agricultural technology. I would say that since the lives lost because my designs are less than the lives saved, it all balances out like some math problem. But human life isn’t a variable, and it’s terrible that it took something like this for me to realize that. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be. I need to decide what direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well.”

 

The roar of the press was reaching its climax. Satisfied, Toni tried to get off the stage by backing up and changing directions. Obadiah came onto the stage, hands roughly gripping Toni’s shoulders, stopping her. He spoke into the microphone, “What we should take away from this is that Toni's back! And she's healthier than ever.”

 

“No, I’m not!” Toni stated angrily. “My feet were chopped off, I have shrapnel in my chest, and I’ve been through more in the past three months then I knew I could handle. But I’m here, I’m alive, and my mind is clearer than it's ever been.” She jolted the joystick forward, rolling off the stage and down the ramp, and out the door. Obadiah followed her, angry.

  
“What do you think the over-under stock is going to drop tomorrow?” Obadiah asked her.

  
“Optimistically, forty points,” Toni said.

 

“At the minimum,” Obadiah added.

 

“Yep,” Toni agreed.

 

“Toni, we’re a weapons manufacturer,” He reminded her.

 

“Obie, I don’t just want a body count to be our only legacy,” Toni said.

 

“That’s what we do,” Obadiah said. “We’re Ironmongers, we make weapons.”

 

“Not anymore,” Toni said.

 

“What we do keeps the world from falling into chaos!” Obadiah exclaimed.

 

“Not based on what I saw. We’re not doing a good enough job. We can do better, we’re gonna do something else.” She said. “You were always better at the business side than I was, if I had it my way, I’d live in my workshop. But I am the CEO, I am the owner of Stark Industries, It’s my name on the building, and it’s my name on the bombs. I don’t care about the money. I don’t care about the stock market or the shareholders or the quarterly profits. Maybe it’s time to break the stick and revolutionize the carrot.” Toni stopped her wheelchair at the front of the building where the arc reactor plant powers the facility. “I think we should take another look at arc reactor technology.”

 

“Come on, the arc reactor? That’s a publicity stunt! Toni, come on, we built that thing to shut the hippies up!”

 

“It works,” Toni reminded him.

 

“Yeah, as a science project. The arc was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it. Arc reactor technology, that's a dead end, right?” Obadiah asked her. Did he know?

 

“Maybe,” Toni said.

 

“Am I right? We haven’t had a breakthrough in that in what? Thirty years?”

 

“That’s what they say,” Toni agreed. She looked at Obadiah, who was looking as eager as a kid on Christmas. “Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?”

 

“Never mind who told me, show me,” Obadiah said.

 

“You’re asking me to take my shirt off,” Toni told him. He still looked at her expectantly. She sighed and unbuttoned the buttons at the top and bottom of the reactor, pulling her shirt slightly so he could see the blue glow of the reactor in her chest. “It works.” She told him. “But I get that it’s not what you’re comfortable with. So if you and the shareholders want to jump ship, I get it. You can tell them I’ll buy their shares for what they were worth last year-”

 

“Listen, Toni, we’re a team, you understand? There’s nothing we can’t do if we stick together. Just like your father and I. So, Toni, no more of this ‘ready, fire, aim’ business. You understand me?”

 

“That was always Daddy’s line,” Toni said.

 

“You gotta let me handle this,” Obadiah said. “We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now. We're going to have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me that you're gonna lay low.”

 

“I need to build a better one of these and some legs, anyway,” Toni said, motioning to her arc reactor. "Just keep me in the loop. I care about this company more than ever now, Obie.”

 


	4. Ingenuity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate everyone who has given kudos so far, and I would like to remind everyone that I also love comments! Don't be intimidated. I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Toni Stark’s first focus was her arc reactor. With the resources and finances of Stark Industries at her disposal, she estimated she could triple, if not quadruple, the energy output of her first reactor prototype. Crazed to work on something and afraid of where her mind would go if she let it be idle, Toni started working on her new reactor as soon as she got home. The schematics in the archives were near identical to the way she remembered them, with a few tweaks for optimization. Toni also used J.A.R.V.I.S. to run optimization diagnostics on the design to maximize the output even further. Her initial hope for quadruple was surpassed, and as she started constructing the arc reactor, her math indicated it could generate just under twenty gigajoules per second.

 

She worked overnight, drowning several energy drinks and even more water to keep herself awake and functioning through the night and the following morning. Satisfied she was ready for installation, she settled herself on a part-reclined exam bed. She took her shirt off, and applied several electrodes to her torso, they were hooked up to diagnostic screens and keeping track of her heart rate for the installation. She took off the brace holding the arc reactor against her chest and began to pull out the original cylindrical reactor. The pain that seized through her chest was immediate. She returned it back to her chest.

 

“J.A.R.V.I.S. - Scans!” She ordered.

 

“It appears, ma’am, that there is an exposed wire at the base of the electromagnet which is causing for shortage when moved, likely due to contact with the socket,” J.A.R.V.I.S.  explained. “I do not recommend attempting to perform the procedure yourself. I can search for medical staff who may be capable-”

 

“Call Pepper,” Toni ordered.

 

“I do not believe that this procedure is not in Miss Potts’ skillset or contract,” J.A.R.V.I.S. warned.

 

“Do it, J,” Toni said.

 

“Calling Miss Potts,” J.A.R.V.I.S. announced with resignation.

 

The phone rang twice and then connected. “Pepper, how big are your hands?” Toni asked.

 

“What?” Pepper asked.

 

“How big are your hands?” Toni repeated. Pepper was quiet on the other end, probably puzzled.

 

“I don’t understand why-”

 

“Get down here, I need you,” Toni said. The call ended.

 

Not even five minutes later, Pepper was at the entrance to Toni’s workshop. She plugged in her access code, and the door swung open, she stepped inside. She was wearing one of the dresses Toni liked to see her in, black with a square neckline and cap sleeves. It was professional, but not overly formal. “Hey,” Toni greeted her. “Let’s see them, show me your hands. Let’s see them.” She waved Pepper over impatiently. Pepper held up her hands awkwardly, walking over with a puzzled expression.

"Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite indeed.” Toni said, why had she never paid attention to Pepper’s hands before? They were narrow, each bone and tendon well-defined without looking skeletal or sickly. “I just need your help for a sec,” Toni explained.

 

“Oh, my God, is that the thing keeping you alive?” Pepper asked. She seemed completely unfazed by the fact that Toni was exposed from the waist up. Pepper focused on the glowing arc reactor in Toni’s sternum, which was one of the reasons Toni liked Pepper. She knew how to focus on what was really important.

 

“It was,” Toni nodded. “Now, it is an antique.” She held up her brand new reactor which she was holding in her hand. “This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little... speedbump.”

 

“Speedbump? Well, what does that mean?” Pepper asked. Her voice wasn’t gentle or filled with worry. She was direct and professional even when slightly rattled, which was precisely why Toni needed her.

 

“It’s nothing. It’s just a little snag,” Toni assured her. “There’s an exposed wire under this device.” She reached her arc reactor and began to lift it, “And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short.” She yanked hard on the reactor so the wire snapped and the electromagnet was draining of energy. “It's fine.” She handed the old reactor to Pepper.

 

“What do you want me to do?” Pepper asked, looking at it with a mixture of awe and disgust. 

 

“Put that on the table over there,” Toni said. “That is irrelevant.”

 

“Oh my god,” Pepper muttered under her breath as she did what Toni needed her to do.

 

“I want you to reach in, and you’re just going to gently lift the wire out,” Toni said. The pain in her chest was growing.

 

“Is it safe?” Pepper asked, hand hovering above Toni’s chest. She had an expression that wasn't unfamiliar to Toni. It was a cross between apprehension and fascination. Pepper didn’t want to hurt Toni, but part of her probably wanted to know what it was like to stick her hand in her boss’ chest.

 

“Yeah, it should be fine,” Toni said. “It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall, or it goes ‘beep.’”

 

“What do you mean, ‘operation?’” Pepper asked. Realizing that this procedure was probably more of an actual operation.

 

“It’s a just game, nevermind.” Toni said. “Just gently lift the wire.”

 

“Okay?” Pepper asked, hand slowly descending into Toni’s chest.

 

“Great. Okay,” Toni affirmed.

 

Pepper’s hand descended a few centimeters and then she yanked it out like she had burned it, clenching her fist and stuttering. “You - you know I don’t think I’m qualified to do this.”

 

“No, you’re fine,” Toni assured her, voice as calm and rational as she could make it. “You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great.” Toni’s sincerity was legitimate, and Pepper’s expression afterward was followed by an odd feeling in Toni’s chest, which she attributed to the dangerous procedure they were performing. “Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm-”

 

“Okay, okay,” Pepper said, finding her bravery.

 

“I really need your held here,” Toni said. Pepper leaned forward and started lowering her hand again. “Okay,” Toni sighed, leaning back. 

 

“Oh, there’s  _ pus _ ,” Pepper squealed, her voice hitting octaves higher than Toni had ever heard it go before.

 

“It’s not pus,” Toni said, trying to keep her calm. “It's an inorganic plasmic discharge-” Pepper squeaked in disgust “-from the device, not from my body.”

 

“It smells,” She whimpered.

 

“Yeah, it does,” Toni agreed. Pepper was looking up and away from her hands. “The copper wire, the copper wire, you got it?”

 

“Okay, I got it, I got it,” Pepper said.

 

“Okay, you got it?” Toni confirmed. “Now, don't-” It touched the sides and a sudden ripple of pain shot through her. She yelped and shuddered, but continued directing Pepper, “Let it touch the sides when you're coming out!”

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Pepper apologized hurriedly while taking it out.

 

“That’s what I was trying to tell you before,” Toni explained with strain. “Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't-” Toni was trying to explain it to Pepper hurriedly, but she was pulling at the wire way too quickly. “There's a magnet at the end of it!” She saw the magnet out of her and dripping plasma onto her chest. She had put it in there to be emergency backup for the electromagnet for situations like this. She was now going into cardiac arrest, with nothing magnetic in her chest. “That was it, you just pulled it out.”

 

“Okay, god, I was not expecting-” Pepper said, she started to lower the magnet back into Toni’s chest.

 

“Don’t put it back in, don’t put it back in,” Toni said hurriedly. Pepper set it down on the bench beside the old reactor.

 

“Okay, what do I do?” She asked. “What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest-” Toni started sarcastically.

 

“What?!” Pepper squealed.

 

“'Cause you yanked it out like a trout-” Toni finished indignantly.

 

“I thought you said it was safe!”  Pepper exclaimed.

 

“We gotta hurry, take this, take this,” Toni handed Pepper the new reactor. “You gotta switch it out really quick, Okay?”

 

“Okay,” Pepper said quietly. She set a hand on Toni’s shoulder where her skin suddenly started to tingle. “Toni, it’s going to be okay.”

 

“What?” Toni asked. “Is it?”

 

“It is going to be okay,” Pepper said, angling the reactor into Toni’s chest. “I’m going to make this okay.”

 

“Let’s hope,” Toni quipped. Pepper had one hand in her chest, feeling around for the socket to plug the arc reactor into. “Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you-” Pepper attached it to the base plate, and the electromagnet activated, shocking Toni but ending her cardiac arrest. It was like she had just had a defibrillator go off in her chest. She yelped in shock and pain. “Ya-oooow.” Pepper continued to put the arc reactor in Toni’s chest, clicking it into place. The look on her face was one of apprehension, worry, and a much more subtle disgust. “Was that so hard? That was fun, right?” She asked Pepper. “Here, I got it. I got it. Here.” With the hard part over, she took over and finished adjusting the reactor into place. “Nice,” She sighed.

 

“Are you okay?” Pepper asked breathlessly. Her hands were splayed open and hovering above Toni’s chest, dripping plasma.

 

“Yeah, I feel great,” Toni said. Pepper sighed with relief. Her face had a sheen from sweat, and her bangs had stuck to her forehead at odd angles. Toni grinned at her, “Are you okay?” Pepper’s countenance morphed from worry to annoyance, and Toni couldn’t help but laugh at how she was trying to look relieved and intimidating in the same expression.

 

Pepper was also smiling, although not as intensely as Toni, “Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again.”

 

“I don’t have anyone but you,” Toni said, surprising herself. Pepper was looking into her eyes, and she was looking into Pepper’s eyes, and something was twisting in her stomach that definitely wasn’t from the arc reactor. All of a sudden, Toni felt incredibly self-conscious with her bare, scarred chest. She offered Pepper a reassuring smile, “Anyway,” She yanked the electrodes off her chest and covered her torso with the towel on her lap.

 

“What do you want me to do with this?” Pepper asked. Toni looked to see what she was referring to. The old arc reactor was in her hands. 

 

“That?” Toni asked. “Destroy it. Incinerate it.

 

“You don’t want to keep it?” Pepper asked, sounding like a child speaking about a lost kitten.

 

“Pepper, I’ve been called many things. ‘Nostalgic’ is not one of them,” Toni answered. She was probably clutching the towel to her chest a little too tightly, because Pepper noticed, still holding the reactor gingerly in her two hands.

 

“Did they have to… cut you up like that?”

 

“Yeah, to make way for the electromagnet,” Toni said. Toni tried to avoid Pepper’s gaze and instead focus on maneuvering from the reclined chair to her wheelchair while still holding the towel to her chest. It took a little bit of flopping, and she winced as she landed on her hip weird. She looked up at Pepper who was making doleful eyes at her. “It’s fine. I value my life more than my tits.” 

 

“Still…” Pepper said. “It’s not like you got to make that choice.” How she was so sweet astounded Toni. Toni just stood there, looking blankly at her. Pepper sighed and nodded to herself, it seemed. “Will that be all, Miss Stark?”

 

“That will be all, Miss Potts,” Toni said. She turned to one of her robots, hoping to diffuse the tension by not looking at Pepper. “Hey, Butterfingers, come here. What's all this stuff doing on top of my desk? That's my phone, that's a picture of Daddy and me. Right there. In the garbage. All that stuff.” She said. She turned around to look at Pepper as she walked out of her lab, tapping on her arc reactor as if assuring herself that it was real.

 

* * *

 

 

Toni’s next focus was her prosthetics. Two days after she returned home, the latest prototypes in Stark Industries’ prosthetic line were shipped to her house. They were purely mechanical creations with titanium bones surrounded in plastic and foam as an outer dermal layer. It was simply a hinge joint with some tension so Toni could balance on it. They were the right size, and comfortable enough to wear, but not easy to maintain balance on and rather heavy to walk with. She could sort of manage to toddle around if she had something to support herself on, but it felt like she was dragging around heavy weights and stumbling through her own home. Pepper was helping as much as she dared, bless her. She would help Toni get up if Toni went too far off balance, and she waited around her like a nervous mother to swoop in if Toni lost balance or to fetch her something, so she never had to stand up. She also would assure Toni that she was making progress and that these things took time. Tonu was both annoyed and touched by Pepper’s enthusiasm for helping her.

 

“Your legs did atrophy slightly, it’s going to take a while for your strength to return, but they will become easier to walk in, you know this. Stark Industries’ prosthetics are highly regarded,” Pepper assured her. “I could hire a physical therapist for you to help regain strength and motion-”

 

“No, you’re doing fine,” Toni said. “Do me a favor, and order me a stationary bike desk chair.” As Pepper went off to do precisely that, Toni grabbed a tablet and a pen and began working on schematics for even better prosthetics. She studied up on the anatomy of legs and feet, not just the gross anatomy of bones and skin, but the specific structure of each individual foot bone. She looked into lightweight materials, and she read every study she could find on neural reconnection in prosthetic limbs, both motor and sensory. She must have emailed thirty clinical trials to ask them questions about their progress and their results, offering to give small supplemental grants if they could give her the information she needed. She did all this research in a stationary bike desk chair, cycling her legs until her muscles ached and every movement from the waist down resulted in waves of pain. But it progressed because after she let her legs healed and started cycling again, she always was able to hold out longer and longer. She still wandered around her house for a few hours every day, stretching her legs and practicing her balance. Pepper always trailed behind her in case she needed help, even though Toni could call her through J.A.R.V.I.S. at any time. Toni got better at walking. She could walk from her bedroom to the pool and do laps to help regain her strength. She exercised more than she had ever done in her life and ate more too. Her thighs became thicker and stronger. There was a slight definition in her abdomen. Her spine and her ribs were obscured by thickening muscular and adipose tissue until she was no longer a model for a stop-motion film directed by Henry Selick.

 

Pepper was no longer following her around like a worried mother, Toni could jog on a treadmill. Her schematics were nearly complete, with piles of digital notes on human anatomy ready to be put to use. She started to design the next generation in the human prosthesis. Lightweight carbon fiber, titanium, and a variety of polymers were placed through a series of stress tests, as Toni decided what had properties more similar to osseous tissue, dermal tissue, muscular tissue, and connective tissue. Conductive carbon fiber was hooked up to the necessary machinery to see if, with the right application of electricity, they could jolt, move and flex like a healthy human muscle. Wanting sensory information to be preserved, Toni researched how to restore neural pathways as well as design thermoreceptors and mechanoreceptors in the skin-like, elastic polymers. Coffee, sports drinks, and snacks piled up in her workshop as she performed test after test on the prosthetics to make sure that they functioned for every applicable scenario.

 

The hardest part was installing the technology she developed into her own body. She had casts of her lower legs made, and she had J.A.R.V.I.S. scan old pictures of her to calculate the previous dimensions of her lower limbs. The part that annoyed Toni the most of her amputations were that it was asymmetrical. To make sure the neural connections worked, she had to build her legs bit by bit on her body. She started with the left foot. A lightweight titanium brace fit over the end of her leg, as an attachment and detachment point for her prosthetics. The brace had a series of small, thin electrodes which both sat superficially on her skin and were injected deeper within the layers of muscle to receive motor information and send sensory information. Putting it on was the most painful part. With it turned off, building her leg was a painless endeavor. The skeletal outline with basic carbon-fiber tendons and muscles was layered on until all the motions were stable when Toni moved her foot with her hands. Activating the brace and the neural network, she began to practice sending motor information to her ankle and toes. Large movements were more comfortable, but with practice and some adjustments, she could wiggle the toes without delay. The second step, sensory information, was a bit harder. She had a slightly elastic polymer full of an intricate webbing of circuitry and micro receptors which she had to adhere onto her prosthetic in thin strips and meld together with surgical electrocautery. She could feel pressure and temperature changes with the skin of her foot now, although the sensations were a reduction of what she once had, and felt like it wasn’t truly a part of her. The best part was the stabilization for balance. Without thinking, her body knew how to adjust her feet and toes, so she wasn’t off balance like she was with the previous prosthetics, although she had overcome that. She especially liked that her foot was a semi-translucent white shade, with thin black wires permeated through it. She was basically a human cyborg now, she wanted to maintain the aesthetic. The next prosthetic would be three times as large, but through trial and error of the foot, she was confident that she would be able to have it functioning in half the time. After practicing on her new foot, her mobility was significantly improved. 

 

“Can it feel pain?” Pepper asked.

 

“No,” Toni said. “I couldn’t really manage to figure that out, and I couldn’t see the point. I know when it’s touching something, or if it’s hot or cold, but I don’t experience pain for those sensations.”

 

“So, you’re feet won’t get sore in heels?” Pepper questioned.

 

“I suppose not,” Toni agreed.

 

“Lucky,” Pepper said.

 

“Lucky I got my feet chopped off?” Toni teased. “Rude.”

 

Pepper stopped herself, worried Toni was actually offended. But she saw the look in Toni’s eye and the smile on her face, and she rolled her eyes.

 

Toni was satisfied, proud even, of her creation and her ingenuity. Advanced prosthetics, biotechnology, and the arc reactor? It wasn’t a bomb, but she could imagine loads of peaceful but useful applications for all of her recent developments. The lifestyle of veterans alone could be transformed with her neural networks, and arc reactors were the future of clean energy. She was proud of what she did, and she wanted to show her best friend.

 

* * *

 

 

Toni had found Rhodey in the same airfield as always. “The future of air combat. Is it manned or unmanned?” Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes asked a group of young airmen as he showed them through a hangar. “I'll tell you, in my experience, no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct, his insight, that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome, or a pilot's judgment.”

 

“Colonel?” Toni asked as she approached Rhodey from where she was lingering, off on his right. “Why not a pilot without the plane?” She suggested, walking to her friend. Her left side was smooth and relatively seamless, while she had a slight limp in the right. She was wearing a leather jacket, a dark shirt, dark jeans, and dark but comfortable combat boots.

 

“Look who fell out of the sky,” Rhodey grinned at her, introducing her to the pilots. “Miss Toni Stark.” She started shaking hands with the men, but she didn’t include her typical suave flirtations and smiles. She didn’t care about impressing these men, she was here for Rhodey.

 

“Hello, ma’am,” Several different men said as she shook their hands. “Pleasure meeting you.”

 

“Give us a couple minutes, you guys,” Rhodey said after she had shaken everyone’s hand. They meandered off, but Toni could almost see the way they were straining their ears. Everyone wanted to know what was up with Toni Stark.

 

“I’m surprised,” Rhodey said with a smile.

 

“Why?” Toni asked.

 

“I swear, I didn't expect to see you  _ walking around  _ so soon,” Rhodey explained. Toni wanted to tell him that she’d been walking, or relearning to walk, for the past month or so  now. She decided against it and stuck to her plan.

 

“I’m doing a little better than walking,” Toni admitted.

 

“Really?” Rhodey asked.

 

“Yeah,” Toni said. “That’s why I came to see you. I have some new projects. Big projects. And I would love for you to help me out with them.”

 

“You're about to make a whole lot of people around here really happy, 'cause that little stunt at the press conference, that was a doozy.” Rhodey laughed.

 

Toni winced obviously and sighed, “I’m not making weapons if that’s what you’re hoping for. And they’re not  _ explicitly _ for the military. It’s all… very different.”

 

Rhodey scoffed, puzzled, “What, you’re a humanitarian now or something?”

 

“I want to be,” Toni admitted. She saw the look on his face, he was shocked, annoyed, maybe even outraged. “I need you to listen to me.”

 

“No. What you need is time to get your mind right,” Rhodey said.

 

“Rhodey, for the first time in my whole life, my mind  _ is _ right,” Toni told him. “I’m… proud of what I’m doing. I’m proud of the changes I’m making. And I want for my best friend to be a part of it.”

 

“I’m serious. Is this a joke to you?” Rhodey asked, annoyed.

 

“Is it a joke to me?” Toni asked, somehow more annoyed. “I had parts of my body hacked off, is that a joke to you?”

 

“Toni - don’t be hysterical.”

 

“Hysterical,” Toni echoed, voice devoid of emotion. “Right. Because mass murder is good and dandy-”

 

“-Toni-”

 

“-But, God forbid I experience  _ emotions _ .”

 

“I’m not going to argue with you about this, Toni. Talk to somebody, see a therapist, then come back and, you know, we’ll talk.”

 

“Yeah, alright,” Toni said, turning around to walk off. She stopped herself and turned back. “She’s gone, you know.” She called to Rhodey. “The woman I was before all this happened, she died in that cave. And three months later I came out, and I’m not planning on repeating her mistakes.”

 

“It was good seeing you, Toni,” Rhodey said with finality.


	5. Destiny

Two weeks after Toni had gone to see Rhodey, she was walking around on two fully-functional next-generation prosthetic limbs. She was eager to see if they could begin an expansion in research and development with her creations and advance medical technology decades. The arc reactor technology was currently being used supplemental to the prosthetics. Using small wires, she could use the reactor to charge her prosthetics. One hour charging could keep the prosthetics functioning for about two days. Of course, there was a second niggling project in the back of her head. The mech suit that she had used to escape from the cave. A thick, burning part of her wanted to improve it. She wanted to do some good, and there was a part of her that felt like she had some unfinished business to attend to, which would require tools unlike those anyone had seen before.

 

“JARVIS, you up?” Toni asked as she activated her computers and design software in her workshop.

 

“For you, ma’am, always,” JARVIS replied.

 

“I’d like to open a new project file, index as Mark Two.” Toni had pulled up her initial schematics of the first mech suit she had drawn while bored and on bedrest. She put the schematics on her design table and began to look at them, mind already buzzing with adjustments and improvements.

 

“Shall I store this in the Stark Industries Central Database?” JARVIS inquired.

 

“Actually, I don’t know who to trust right now,” Toni admitted. With Rhodey and Obadiah being disappointed in her, the two people she would have had to help her on projects were the two people she wanted to keep this as far away from as possible. Everyone seemed to be disappointed in her, actually. Disappointed, angry, confused, concerned. “Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?” Toni requested. The schematics were holographically projected, the significant components extracted individually.

 

“Working on a secret project, are we, ma’am?” JARVIS asked. Toni pulled all the pieces together to form one cohesive suit and started pulling essential parts of the structureaway and disposing of them.

 

“I don’t want this winding up in the wrong hands,” Toni explained. “Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good. She spun the holographic projection on the suit, letting her mind create a list of everything she wanted to change and how to do the alterations before she got to work. Making schematics was the longest part because she would always change something and then dislike and change it again, turning something as simple as the construction of the helmet a few thousand times until it was the proper amalgamation of efficiency and style. Once the schematics were complete, she began construction. The hardest part, she knew from the start, would be the propulsion system. Her initial suit was designed with the propulsion to be a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency feature, not an integral part of the mobility. However, it had been decently useful, and Toni was interested to see what piloting abilities she could create if she adapted a propulsion-based flight system. Therefore, the first things she built were the boots with the propulsions system. Toni had been spending a lot of time with feet, she mused to herself as designing the clunky propulsion boots. She finished them at an unbelievable speed, mostly because she was eager to try to fly. She had a camera filming the progress of her first test, she fit her prosthetics into the clunky boots and prepared herself for the first test flight.

 

“Okay, let’s do this right,” She said as she readied herself, speaking for the sake of noise. “Start mark, half a meter. Then back and center.” She looked in the camera and sighed. She was eager, anxious, and bubbling with curiosity. She had the controls in one hand, and a web of wires from her reactor powering the whole thing. “Dummy, look alive, you’re on fire safety. You - roll it.” She sighed. “Okay, activate hand controls.” She held her hands out, she had to be delicate. She adjusted herself, wiggling in her boots. “We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieves lift,” She explained to the camera. She adjusted her controls. “And three, two, one.” She realized as soon as she pressed the buttons that ten percent was more than enough lift. She let go, but the blast was so strong that it flung her into the air. She hit the ceiling and fell back down on the mats she had placed liberally around her workplace. She grunted in pain, but nothing felt broken. Then, she was obscured by a dense, thick blast of fog. Dummy had blasted her with the fire extinguisher, although she was very much _not_ on fire.

 

It was humbling to have such a terrible first flight, but it made her eager to go back to her schematics to have less energy dedicated to propulsion, and a lot more to stabilization and optimization of the controls. She believed that adding thrusters to the palms of her hand would help stabilize her motion, distribute the forces more efficiently, and reduce the number of times she smacked into the ceiling. After figuring out the logistics of the stabilizers, she started designing them, having the basic structure of the arms dedicated to helping regulate the adjustments and control of them to keep her piloting optimized. She started adjusting the way it fit on her arm when she noticed Pepper’s heels clicking down the stairs. She had a paper, a coffee, and a brown paper package.

 

“I’ve been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?” Pepper asked, in her concerned voice she had perfected in the last month or so.

 

“No, sorry. What’s up?” Toni asked, continuing her work.

 

“Obadiah’s upstairs,” Pepper said.

 

“Great, great,” Toni said, still focused on her adjustments.

 

“What would you like me to tell him?” Pepper asked.

 

“I’ll be right up,” Toni replied.

 

“Okay,” Pepper nodded. She stayed in the room and watched what Toni was doing. “I thought you said you were done making weapons.” She wasn’t confused, in fact, she nearly sounded disappointed.

 

“I’m not making weapons,” Toni assured her, almost as if she cared about Pepper’s opinion of her. “This is a flight stabilizer, it’s completely harmless.” She activated it. The blast from the propulsion system was more than Toni expected, but she had the hindsight of the last test to start it on minimum capacity, it knocked over the workbench across from her and sent her stumbling backward. The loud sound it made was the worst part. Pepper cowered and covered her ears. Once the chaos ended, Pepper looked over at Toni with concern.

 

“I didn’t expect that,” Toni murmured, apologetic.

 

“Whatever,” Pepper said. “I’m not gonna… can you please come upstairs?”

 

“Yeah, tell Obie I’ll be up in just a bit,” Toni assured her, working on taking off the arm propulsion system.

 

“How’d it go?” Toni asked as she entered. Obadiah was playing the piano, with a drink in front of him. A box of pizza was on the coffee table. “That bad, huh?” She asked.

 

“Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad,” Obadiah tried to reassure her.

 

“Sure doesn't. Oh, boy,” Toni sighed, sitting down.

 

“It would’ve gone better if you were there,” Obadiah said.

 

“You told me to lay low, that’s what I’ve been doing,” Toni said. “That’s what I’ve been doing. If I lay low, and you take care of it all.”

 

“Hey, come on, in public. The press. This was a board of directors meeting.”

 

“This was a board of directors meeting?” Toni asked, shocked. “Why the hell wasn’t I told about it?” She looked at Pepper with a confused expression. Pepper seemed equally shocked. She looked at Obadiah, he looked disappointed. There was something about it all that didn’t sit right with her.

 

“The board is claiming you have post-traumatic stress,” Obadiah explained. “They’re filing an injunction.”

 

Toni sighed, everyone thought she was crazy, didn’t they? But she wasn’t, she was functional, she was still focused on the company, she was focused on the new direction. “They’re worried that it’s not financially stable, aren’t they? That it’s not in the company’s best interests to stop making weapons.”

 

“Yeah,” Obadiah nodded gravely.

 

“Well, we’ll just prove them wrong. I haven’t been sitting here idly and moping. Haven’t you noticed I’m walking again?” Toni asked.

 

“I know you ordered prosthetics.”

 

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t until I had to use them that I learned what we were making was crap,” Toni said. “In the last month, I’ve advanced prosthetic technology twenty years.” She pulled up her right pant leg to show Obadiah the prosthetic skin beneath. She flexed her leg, and the carbon fiber muscles beneath actually rippled. She twisted her ankle and wiggled her toes. “I’ve adapted a complete neural interface for both efferent and afferent nerves, not to mention revolutionizing micro receptors and polymers. I know it’s not going to get a military contract anytime soon, but it’s something new, it’s something amazing.”

 

Obadiah sighed and Toni’s heart sunk into her chest, “No hey, sweetheart, it’s amazing. It really is, and it’s going to help the stock, I guarantee. But, it’s not a magnum opus or anything. It’s not the grand comeback we were all hoping for.” He looked down at her shirt. “What if you have the engineers analyze _that_?” He motioned to where her arc reactor was. “You know, draw up some specs.”

 

“No, no, absolutely not, this one stays with me,” Toni said. “I’ve given you a bone to throw, and I’m going to continue to see what I can do, but I’m gonna draw the lines on some things. You focus on the board, alright, tell them new tech is coming out at the end of the month. I’ll work with Research and Development on getting some prototype arms and legs to show off. We’ll call up the American Orthopaedic Association and get them excited. It’s a step forward in the right direction, Obie, it’s progress. Pepper can help me with the PR.” She didn’t like how Obadiah looked incredibly unimpressed. “Right, fine whatever, I’ll be in my workshop.”

 

“You mind if I come down there and see what you’re doing?” He asked.

 

“I already showed you,” Toni lied. Well, not a whole lie, but not a whole truth, either. “Good night, Obie.” She stormed out of her own living room like a child.

 

* * *

  

Wanting to prove to Obadiah that her prosthetics were a good step forward, Toni flung herself deep into both that and her Mark Two project. She was emailing R&D and arranging meetings with various people of the AOA (American Orthopaedic Association) and AAOS (American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons), as well as the ANA (American Neurological Association) and the AAN (American Academy of Neurology). All she had to do was give them brief explanations of her designs, and they were as excited about them as she was, which fulfilled her. She had them commit to a conference which would present her creations, and she had Pepper (because part of her was concerned about Obadiah - she told herself she was paranoid from the cave, but she was still concerned) email the board and several news outlets an official update of the next generation of Stark Industries medical technology. The responses were lukewarm. The stock rose for the first time since Toni returned, and she felt satisfied.

 

Her other project was one she tended to work on when it was night time as if that somehow made her accomplishments more clandestine.

 

“Day eleven, test thirty-seven, configuration two-point-oh. For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety - If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college-” Toni informed, first the camera, and then the robot. “Alright, nice and easy-” She put herself in a stance for takeoff. -Seriously, just gonna start off with one percent thrust capacity.” She was feeling a little nervous. “And three, two, one.” The propulsors blasted in her hands and feet, lifting her off the ground by about a foot. She had to adjust herself, slightly apprehensive of the fall, but managing to stabilize her center of gravity and hover mid-air comfortably. “Okay,” She said as she landed, satisfied. Her landing was a bit hard as she had to rebalance again. She turned to look at Dummy, who had the fire extinguisher pointed at her, ready for action. “Please don’t follow me around with it either. Because I feel like I’m gonna catch fire spontaneously. Just stand down, if something happens, then you come in.” She oriented herself back in the initial starting position, “And again, let’s bring it up to two-point-five,” Toni said. “Three, two, one,” She counted. The propulsors activated and she was now hovering two feet in the air. Her movements were now much more dramatized. A small adjustment altered the position of her flight much more than it had done before. She found herself drifting where she didn’t want to drift, she grunted as she tried to fight the propulsors to adjust her position and the direction she was heading. She was in her garage and was drifting toward her line of expensive sports cars. “Okay this is where I don’t want to be,” She said. “Not the car - not the car!” Despite her drifting around, her feet were stable, and she was starting to realize that small hand adjustments and leaning of the torso could adjust her direction. She leaned backward and extended her hands when she got too close to a wall, and she pushed off the other direction, refocusing her center of gravity and stabilizing basically where she had taken off from. Rigid and controlled, she reduced the intensity of her propulsion and landed hard. She checked on her robots. Dummy lifted the extinguisher nozzle to her face. “Na-ah-ah-ah!” She warned him. He dropped it down as if he was pouting over his uselessness. The fact that she _just did that_ was finally hitting her. She looked at the camera and grinned, “Yeah, I can fly.”

 

* * *

  

The next step in developing her mech armor was the plating. Once she had worked out the wiring and the internal skeletal circuitry, the plating had to cover everything if she would safely fly around. She had gotten more and more practice with flight in her garage, managing to spend a whole of twenty minutes doing laps while she was still designing the plate system and a way to put on the suit by herself. She basically had to build herself into the suit, but she made sure that it could be removed quickly enough. She picked up the faceplate and added it to her suit, “JARVIS, are you there?” She asked.

 

“At your service, ma’am,” JARVIS replied.

 

“Engage heads-up display,” Toni said. A variety of holographic images began to appear in her vision.

 

“Check,” JARVIS confirmed.

 

“Import all preferences from home interface,” She directed. A variety of meters and diagnostics floated across her vision, identifying and reporting on things in her field of vision.

 

“Will do, ma’am,” JARVIS replied.

 

“Alright,” she said, still in awe of how far she’d gotten. “What d’ya say?”

 

“I have indeed been uploaded, ma’am. We’re online and ready,” JARVIS informed.

 

“Can we start the virtual walk-around?” Toni requested.

 

“Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment.”

 

“Do a check on control surfaces,” She added.

 

“As you wish.” Toni felt the soft whirring as each plate and mechanism tested itself and its range of motion. “Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics.”

 

Toni didn’t want to power down and run diagnostics, “Yeah. Tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control.”

 

“Ma’am, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is-”

 

“JARVIS!” Toni said warningly. “Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.” She stepped into her tried-and-true takeoff position. “In three, two, one.” The propulsion started, she floated a bit above the air. She leaned forward, pushing out and away behind her, and she drifted through the garage, up the spiral ramp, and into the air above the Malibu mansion. Toni had done a lot of things in her life. Sports car racing, skydiving, unbelievable sex, but something about flying - actually flying - made it the greatest rush she knew. She whooped as she soared through the air, higher and higher. She twisted and barrel-rolled through the sky, addicted to the adrenaline and the swooping in her stomach. “Handles like a dream,” She boasted to herself. She continued testing the extent of flight for a while, flying over Santa Monica pier and watching kids lick ice cream on the Ferris wheel. After finding cloud cover, she decided it was time to up the ante. “All right, let's see what this thing can do. What's SR-71's record?” She asked JARVIS.

 

“The altitude record for fixed wing flight is eighty-five thousand feet, ma’am,” JARVIS reported.

 

“Records are made to be broken, come on!” She whooped, blasting higher into the sky.

 

“Ma’am,” JARVIS warned after a moment of flight. “There is a potentially fatal buildup of ice occurring.” Toni continued for a while but slowed down as she checked the diagnostics. More than half of her suit was already frozen by the time she decided flying any higher could impede the function of the suit. She was eager to break the record but worried of suit shut-down. What use could her or her technology be if she was dead? This was an experiment, and it showed she needed to adapt to this icing problem. She sighed. Records are made to be broken, but she’d have to do this one another day. She cut out her propulsion, swan diving head-first into the earth below while the build-up of ice crackled away when she was a bit under a thousand feet, she launched propulsion once more and shot over the skyline, rocketing at speeds and screaming with joy. She could still enjoy herself while being slightly reasonable. “JARVIS, how much mass could the roof of the mansion support?”

 

“If you’re wondering if it is safe to land, your density is too high to support it safely. You should wait until you reach the basement garage before attempting to land, ma’am.”

 

“Right, boo,” She complained half-heartedly as she slowly drifted to the entrance of her garage and hovered down the spiral ramp, landing once more. “Kill power.”

 

She managed to get out of the suit and put it on its stand, lugging piece at a time. Still buzzing from her flight test, she made her way to her workshop to add notes for future developments. While there, she noticed the brown paper package from a while ago that Pepper had left on her workbench. Curious what it was, she ripped the packaging open. It was her old arc reactor in a glass box. It was on a stand with a circular brace, where inscribed it said _Proof that Toni Stark has a heart._ Toni smiled at the gift fondly. She set it down, and she got to work.

 

The following night, she was in her workshop, drinking one of those green drinks with protein powder and going over the updates to the mech armor, designing Mark Three. “Notes. The main transducer feels sluggish at plus-40 altitude. Hull pressurization is problematic. I think icing is the probable factor,” she said.

 

“A very astute observation, ma’am. Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets, we should improve the exosystems.” JARVIS replied.

 

“Connect to the Sys. Co. Have it reconfigure the shell metals. Use the gold titanium alloy from the seraphim tactical satellite. That should ensure fuselage integrity while maintaining the power-to-weight ratio. Got it?”

 

“Yes. Shall I render using the proposed specifications?” JARVIS asked.

 

“Thrill me,” Toni replied. Waiting for JARVIS to finish his task, she turned on the television. She was not expecting what she saw. “Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Toni Stark's third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund has become the place to be for L.A.'s high society.” Toni did not remember hearing about the benefit at all. Shouldn’t she have heard about that? It was her benefit.

 

“JARVIS, we get an invite to that?” She asked.

 

“I have no record of an invitation, ma’am.”

 

First, she wasn’t invited to the meeting with the board, then she wasn’t invited to her own benefit ball. She had a weird feeling in her stomach.

 

“Miss Stark hasn’t been seen in public since her bizarre and highly controversial press conference. She has announced a presentation for advancements in prosthesis early next month, many believing because she desires to develop technology to allow her to walk again. Others claim she’s suffering from post-traumatic stress and has been bedridden for weeks. Whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from her tonight,” The anchorwoman said.

 

“Hey, J,” Toni said. “Pull up my wardrobe index. Find something for me that’ll cover the reactor but show off my legs.”

 

“Any particular color in mind, ma’am?” JARVIS asked.

 

“Something pure and feminine. White, pink, blue.”

 

“I have indicated a dress. Index 1R471 in your closet. Shall I suggest shoes, jewelry, and cosmetics to accessorize?”

 

“And a handbag. Nothing too showy, mind you, I want the prosthetics to be the center of attention.”

 

“The render of Mark Two is complete,” JARVIS reported. Toni looked at it.

 

“A little ostentatious, don’t you think?” Toni asked, looking at the gold suit.

 

“What was I thinking? You’re usually so discreet,” JARVIS said sarcastically.

 

“Tell you what,” Toni said. “Throw a little hot-rod red in there.”

 

“Yes, that should help keep you a low profile,” JARVIS said. He added paint to the schematic. “The render is complete. Furthermore, I have indexed the recommended accessories and cosmetics for tonight.”

 

“Hey, I like it. Fabricate it. Paint it.” Toni nodded to the suit. She then looked at the stuff for tonight, “I like that too. Good job, JARVIS.”

 

“Thank you, ma’am,” JARVIS said.

 


	6. Intensity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're all enjoying this so far. I'm always appreciative of my readers' feedback!

Toni drove herself to the Disney Concert Hall, strappy golden heels in her lap. She parked at the valet, slipped her prosthetics in, and opened the door. A herd of cameras came to see who the latest guest was, and when they saw it was her, the cameras were flashing like a strobe light, and people were screaming at her, asking her questions. It was great that she looked the way she did tonight, for all the cameras on her. Toni was proud yet again of her A.I. and his impeccable fashion sense, something that honestly went over Toni’s head half the time. She liked things that were showy, eye-catching. JARVIS had thousands of fashion articles in his mainframe, making it possible for her to look refined and even delicate when need be. Her dress was white and very opaque, so the arc reactor was obscured. The sleeves were long, ending at her wrists, and the neckline was high, starting where her throat met her chest. The midsection of the dress was a criss-crossed pleat, exposing the sides of her torso and nearly all of her back. The skirt itself clung to her hips until her mid-thigh where there was a wide slit and the fabric flared away. JARVIS had added gold studs, strappy gold heels, a gold metallic handbag, and crimson red lips to her look, a subtle call to their secret project. She had straightened her hair, which had grown to a blunt bob after the last few months. Toni adored all of it.

 

Of course, the main focus was her prosthetic legs, as should be. She walked gracefully past the crowd, greeting people she knew, and going up to Obadiah who was having a very public interview. The cameraman saw her and immediately abandoned his focus on Obadiah, instead of giving Toni a slow pan shot as she sauntered up to Obadiah.

 

“What's the world coming to when a girl’s got to crash her own party?” She asked loudly enough that Obadiah had to laugh awkwardly for the camera.

 

“Miss Stark, how are you walking when a month ago you said your feet were amputated?” The cameraman asked.

 

“Well,” Toni grinned at the camera. “Tonight, I am wearing Stark Industries’ next generation in advanced prosthesis.” She turned her right leg at the toe to display the whole side of the polymer-coated leg. “One of the many innovations which will propel us forward in our new direction.”

 

“-We’re going to have a great quarter,” Obadiah said, still trying to finish whatever he was saying to the camera before Toni arrived. “Look at you, hey, what a surprise.” He dropped his voice and whispered in her ear, so the camera and audio didn’t pick it up, “And, hey, take it slow, alright? I think we got the board right where we want them.”

 

Toni looked Obadiah up and down. He was her father’s closest friend and had been a mentor to her for years. And yet, in the last month, she felt like he was getting in her way more than he was helping. She felt like he wasn’t listening to her like he was always trying to push his own agenda.

 

She turned to the camera. “Obadiah Stane has been my father’s greatest friend, my mentor, and my partner for years at Stark Industries. And I have to say, I don’t think I could have done it all without him. He’s been a great help to me the last month and a half as I’ve recovered from what happened in Afghanistan. But, I have to say, I’m more than ready to come back to Stark Industries. I’m very excited for our upcoming presentation on advanced prosthesis, tonight’s a bit of a spoiler, I admit. I’m excited for a new direction with a focus on medical and agricultural innovation and ingenuity. Stark Industries is indebted to you, Obadiah, and all the work you’ve done while I’ve needed my privacy.” She smiled at him, at the camera, at him again. She turned to the camera, “There have been a lot of concerns about my mental health, and I understand. I can honestly say, I was angry and terrified and overwhelmed at that press conference a while ago. But the more time I’ve had to rest and to understand what happened to me, the more I am committed to my promise a month ago. It’s a new direction, a new attitude, and new legs-” she winked “-for Stark Industries, and I couldn’t be happier.”

 

The cameraman shut off his live feed, “Thank you so much for that, Miss Stark.”

 

“Oh, my pleasure.” She grinned. She turned to Obadiah, “I’m really flattered you care so much, but I’m a thirty-eight-year-old woman. You don’t have to protect me from something like the public eye. Or the board. I’m officially back and better than ever, Obie. And I want to take care of this, because it’s all my doing, really.”

 

“Well, I’m glad that you’re feeling better, Toni,” Obadiah smiled, but his eyes were blank. He walked off and pulled out his phone, almost hurriedly finding somewhere to call someone.

 

Toni knew one thing in life, and that was that men sucked. Not individual men, but as a generalization and especially when acting as a unit, they sucked. Her father was terrible. Boys who said vulgar things, men who insisted she was weak mentally or physically because of her sex, the double-standard for her sex life. She knew some were decent, she knew some deserved respect and praise. She thought Obadiah was fine. He was loyal, he cared about her. But was he loyal to her, or what she represented? Did he care about her, or her profits? Toni knew all too well that putting your faith in men was never wise, and the growing apprehension that Obadiah wasn’t someone to be trusted was growing more profound as she walked inside. She ordered a scotch reflexively, although she hadn’t had an alcoholic drink in ages. Since the day she was blown up, actually.

 

“Miss Stark?” A man asked, coming over.

 

“Yeah?” She asked. She didn’t recognize his face.

 

“Agent Coulson,” He introduced himself. The name was familiar. Didn’t Pepper mention an agent from some agency with an obscenely long name?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, from the-”

 

“Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division,” Agent Coulson said “Listen, I know this must be a trying time for you, but we need to debrief you. There's still a lot of unanswered questions, and time can be a factor with these things.”

 

“So, as a government agent, you’re good at like, espionage, right?” Toni asked.

 

“I… have experience,” Agent Coulson admitted.

 

“Okay, I will give you an interview on the twenty-fourth at seven if you do me a favor and steal Obadiah Stane’s phone.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Yeah, family quarrels,” Toni joked.

 

“Can I ask why?” Agent Coulson asked.

 

“He didn’t invite me to my own party, or my own board meeting, I kinda feel like he’s itching to get rid of me,” Toni admitted. From the look on Agent Coulson’s face, this wasn’t new information, which only deepened the conviction of her suspicions. “Can you help, Agent?”

 

“I’ll see what I can do, Miss Stark,” Coulson said. He walked off. Toni was a little bit nervous now if she was wrong, she’d be ruining her relationship with Obadiah forever. She hoped she was right, but she also didn’t want to be. She didn’t want for him to betray her. She was conflicted, she was tired, she had been flying not two hours ago. The small part of her brain that was still devoted to common sense was on the verge of going on vacation. She looked around the hall, and there was a stunning woman not to far away. She had soft, ginger waves down her back and a metallic blue dress with a draping cowl back and a skirt which clung to her ass in a way that was nearly obscene, an ass which was suddenly familiar to Toni. Was that _Pepper_? The concern of corporate subterfuge and government espionage evaporated from Toni completely. Her feet were carrying her over to Pepper.

 

“You look fantastic, I barely recognized you,” Toni said to Pepper when she approached her. Pepper turned around and smiled.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“Well, it’s my party,” Toni grinned. “And you know, I wanted to show everyone that I was back on my feet.”

 

“Are you by yourself?” Pepper asked.

 

“Not anymore,” Toni smiled. “Where’d you get that dress?”

 

“Oh, it was a birthday present,” Pepper said, smiling.

 

“That’s great,” Toni said.

 

“From you, actually,” Pepper added.

 

“Well, I got great taste,” Toni smiled.

 

“Yes,” Pepper agreed. “You look wonderful. I always forget how nice you clean up.”

 

“I guess you’re so used to me wearing a tank and covered in grease,” Toni shrugged. “I’m a woman of multiplicities.”

 

“I can tell,” Pepper nodded. She was smiling at Toni.

 

“Do you want to dance?” Toni asked.

 

“With… you?”

 

“Well, you know how much I dislike men,” Toni whispered. Pepper chuckled but still looked uncomfortable.

 

“What will people think?” Pepper asked.

 

“Do you really care?” Toni asked back.

 

“Shouldn’t you care?” Pepper asked. “Tonight’s your big comeback and all.”

 

“And what better way to show off the capabilities of my prosthetics than with dancing?” Toni asked, grabbing Pepper’s hand and leading her through the crowd to the dance floor in front of the orchestra. Pepper was five inches taller than Toni, and even though Toni’s heels were ridiculously high, she still was shorter than her assistant. Of course, that didn’t stop her from taking the lead while they danced. Toni had one hand in Pepper’s, and the other at the small of her back. Pepper had her hand on Toni’s shoulder, her elbow pressed against Toni’s arm. She glanced around the room, then at Toni. She shook her head and laughed.

 

“Am I making you uncomfortable?” Toni asked delicately.

 

“No - no. I always forget to wear deodorant and dance with my female boss in front of everyone I work with, in a dress with no back,” Pepper muttered, smiling through the tension in her voice.

 

“Is it a problem that I’m a woman?” Toni asked.

 

“Oh, god,” Pepper let out a dry wheeze. “For being so smart, you’re so dumb, Toni.”

 

“You’re probably right,” Toni agreed. “But why do you say that?”

 

Pepper looked up at Toni and sighed, “How many men have I dated?”

 

“Uh... “ Toni trailed off. She knew she was bad with people, but honestly, she couldn’t remember Pepper ever talking about men. “You’re too professional to talk about it. But, you do say you date, so I’m gonna guess… five.”

 

Pepper laughed, “Less.”

 

“Less?”

 

“A lot less.”

 

“Then who do you date?” Toni asked, but her mind was already figuring out the answer when she asked the question. Once, a few months after Pepper became her assistant, she had asked Pepper to go and pick up some dental dams at the local sex shop. Not only was Pepper unfazed, but she never asked once what Toni was talking about. And not even that, but she had picked the best brand. Toni hadn’t even mentioned brands. “I am stupid.”

 

Pepper nodded in agreement, “I actually don’t think you could tie your shoes without me.”

 

“I might make it a week,” Toni decided.

 

“Really?” Pepper asked. “What’s your Social Security number?” The long silence between them was defined by the smug expression on Pepper’s face.

 

“Five,” Toni said.

 

“Five?” Pepper repeated with a smile and a nod. “Right. You… you’re missing a couple of digits there.”

 

“The other eight?” Toni asked. Pepper laughed again. It was such a good sound. “So, I got you for the other eight.” They were looking at each other. Toni was looking up slightly, Pepper was looking down somewhat, they didn’t stop looking at each other. Pepper finally broke the gaze and turned her head to the side, smiling. Something was buzzing where they were touching, and Toni felt the desire to do dumb things growing even stronger.

 

“How about a little air?” Toni asked.

 

“Yes, I need some air,” Pepper agreed immediately. She followed Toni to the bar, where she picked up her handbag, and then the pair headed toward the elevators. Toni saw Agent Coulson standing by the elevators, back turned. As they waited for the elevator to come down, Toni felt something cool and metallic slip into her hand. She put the phone in her handbag as the elevator doors opened. They found a place to stand on the rooftop terrace, overlooking Los Angeles.

 

“That was totally weird,” Pepper said, leaning against the barrier.

 

“Totally harmless,” Toni added.

 

“It was totally _not_ harmless, by the way,” Pepper said.

 

“We were dancing, no one was watching,” Toni said.

 

“Everyone, who I work with - no, you know why?”

 

“I think you lost objectivity. I think they just… People… we just danced.”

 

“No, it was _not_ just a dance. You don’t understand because you’re you and everybody knows exactly who you are, and you have a reputation to keep up, and they can’t know how you are with girls… not that there’s anything wrong with girls. Girls are great.”

 

“So great,” Toni agreed.

 

“But, you know, then me… some people know about me.”

 

“People know about you?” Toni asked.

 

“I thought you did too,” Pepper said. “How did you not know about me?”

 

“You’re very professional,” Toni suggested. “I’m very stupid.”

 

“Both valid points,” Pepper agreed. “But you’re my boss. So people know about me. And they don’t know about you… they might know about you as a result. And I don’t want to be the one to do that to you - even accidentally-”

 

“It was just a dance-”

 

“And it makes me look like the one who’s trying to, you know… like I’m trying to seduce my boss.”

 

“I just think you’re overstating it,” Toni said.

 

“You know, and we’re here. And we’re both wearing these ridiculous dresses, and we were dancing like that, and…” Pepper trailed off, and Toni couldn’t stop looking at her. Pepper was getting closer. Was Toni moving? Was Pepper moving? Were they both moving? Pepper was getting closer. Toni felt Pepper’s hand on her arm, and she prepared for them to crash together. Then, there was a loud ringing sound coming from Toni’s handbag. They jumped apart, the hypnotic moment in time was gone. Toni pulled out the phone that was going off. It was Obadiah’s. The Caller ID said that it was the Board of Directors.

 

“I have to take this,” Toni said, apologetic. Pepper sighed and nodded. Toni stepped even further away from the guests so she could hear better.

 

“Obadiah, we just got your voicemail,” Michael Culp, the head of the board, said. “You said you needed to talk about the injunction you want to file against Toni?”

 

Toni had suspected it, but hearing that Obadiah had been arranging the injunction was a slap in the face and a punch in the gut. “Hey, Mike.”

 

“Toni?”

 

“Obie and I wanted to surprise you all, we’ve been talking. Have you seen the coverage at the Disney Concert Hall?”

 

“At the benefit?” Mike asked. “Yeah, we saw your interview. It was good. We were glad to see you out an’ about.”

 

“So, look,” Toni sighed. “Obie has been worried the last few months. I’m sure we all realized that. He’s… he’s the closest thing I have to a father since Daddy… well, you know. The point is, he’s been overprotective lately. I’ve been distant, I’ve been quiet, and he was concerned about my mental health. I don’t blame him. I locked myself away because I needed to work on my prosthetics. I didn’t want the world to see me again until I was whole.”

 

“We saw you and your prosthetics,” Mike said. “We were all impressed. When you were talking about a prosthetic conference, we weren’t expecting… that.”

 

“I know. And I should have communicated to you, and I should have spoken to Obie. And it’s been hard lately,” Toni sighed. “But I _am_ better now. That’s why Obie called you. He was worried you wouldn’t listen to me, so he wanted me to talk on his phone. And look, I know prosthetics aren’t the same market we were famous for. But we can still monopolize these medical and agricultural industries. We can still develop consumer transportation and electronics and… I’m so full of ideas. Research and Development are full of ideas. It’s not the same, and it might be rough at first, but it will be better, I assure you. Obie agrees with me. And I am again, sorry, for the way I’ve been acting recently. I should be devoted to the company, and I am, now. So, Obie’s done with the injunction, and I’m going to make sure that this new direction is profitable.”

 

“Well,” Mike said. “We appreciate it. Consider the injunction never happened, we hadn’t finished submitting the paperwork anyway. We’re… curious. We were impressed by what we saw tonight, and it seems the public is too. But Toni, if this doesn’t work out-”

 

“Mike, I am Toni Stark,” She said. “I am the CEO of Stark Industries, I am my father’s daughter,” She saw Obadiah come out of the elevator, notice her, and start walking through the crowd. “I’m going to fulfill my duties to the board. And I’m going to fulfill my duties to my father’s legacy. And I’m going to do it my way.”

 

“We’re glad to hear it, Toni,” Mike said.

 

“So am I,” Toni smiled. “And thanks again for canceling the injunction. I’m so glad we could talk, and I’m glad it’s all working out. Obie is too.” She was looking Obadiah Stane in the eyes when he reached her. He was taller. His expression was one she had never seen before, and she half expected him to throw her off the roof. But, if he did, there were enough people here that he’d never get away with it. “I want you to retire,” She told him, the words coming out of her mouth as if she was possessed by something stronger than her. “By the end of the month. I’ll make sure your pension is more than you deserve. You can live wherever you want. The beach, the mountains, Paris, I don’t care. But you’re out by the month, Stane.”

 

“Toni, you don’t understand.”

 

“Don’t tell me how I think. Don’t tell me how I feel. For the first time since I came back, I understand, and I hate it, Stane. How could you do this?”

 

“I’m worried about you-”

 

“Cut the shit. You’ve been lying to me since the press conference, haven’t you? You care more about the profits of the company than me. You care more about the money in your pocket then the lives that are lost.”

 

“Don’t get all high and mighty, Toni,” Obadiah said. “I did this for your father, and for his legacy. This isn't what he would have wanted. You are destroying everything he built.”

 

“He’s dead, he doesn’t matter anymore,” Toni snapped. “The loyalty you showed my father and me for these years is the only reason I’m not firing you. Retire. Have a good life. Just have it away from me.”

 

“Can I have my phone back?” Obadiah asked.

 

Toni considered throwing it off the balcony to be petty, but she handed it to him with resignation. She stomped off, heels clacking, hips swaying, expression drawn. Pepper was gone, she realized. Maybe she went to the bar? Toni crammed her way into the elevator and went downstairs.

 

“Did you get what you needed?” Agent Coulson asked behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

 

“Yeah, thanks,” she said.

 

“The twenty-fourth,” he reminded her.

 

“I’ll remember,” She promised. “Meet me at my mansion.”

 

She went to the bar, looking for Pepper. Pepper was nowhere to be seen. Toni was thirsty from all her revelations. She ordered a rum and coke, hold the rum. She sipped the brown, fizzy cola out of the tiny black straw and looked around the dance floor. A woman in a black dress walked up to her. She looked familiar.

 

“Wow, Toni Stark,” She said.

 

“Oh hey,” Toni said.

 

“Fancy seeing you here,” The woman smiled.

 

“It’s my party, not a huge leap in logic,” Toni shrugged. “Christine, was it?”

 

“That’s right,” Christine nodded. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight. Can I at least get a reaction from you?”

 

“Um,” Toni said. “I plead the… third?”

 

“You don’t want to house soldiers involuntarily?” Christine asked.

 

“I don’t know, I studied engineering,” Toni shook her head. “My reaction is… panic.”

 

“I was referring to your company’s involvement in this latest atrocity,” Christine said.

 

“You’re being vague, trying to lead me into something, I think,” Toni said. “Great tactic, except for the fact that I have no clue what the hell you’re talking about. I wish I did because you got me standing here looking like an idiot. So, tell me, Christine, what’s up?”

 

“I actually almost bought it, hook, line, and sinker.”

 

“You're still vague. I’m still confused. Can we shift gears?” Toni begged.

 

“Is this what you call accountability?” Christine asked, visibly strained. She handed Toni an image. “It’s a town called Gulmira, heard of it?”

 

“Yeah,” Toni said dully, flipping through images. She recognized some of the men from the Afghan cave. And the weapons said Stark Industries on the side. “When were these taken?” She asked.

 

“Yesterday,” Christine said.

 

“When I was held captive, there was another prisoner, from Gulmira,” Toni mumbled, but she knew Christine could hear. “He didn’t make it out.” She flipped through the pictures. Images of Stark Industries weapons again. “When I was there, the terrorists, the Ten Rings, they showed me their cache. Piles and piles of weapons, _my_ weapons. The weapons they used to blow me up, to kill Americans. They bragged about it,” She didn’t know why she was telling Christine this. Probably because she was so overwhelmed with the intensity of the events from tonight, she didn’t need alcohol to shoot her filter dead. “I… when I escaped… I tried to destroy as many of the weapons as possible. I set the camp on fire. I know it sounds crazy, tiny little me with burned up feet and a blowtorch. It was crazy… I guess it was naive of me to assume that all the weapons that they owned were at that one camp.”

 

“Are you telling the truth?” Christine asked.

 

“I mean, I think that’s your job to find out,” Toni said. “Being a journalist for Vanity Fair and all. Can I keep these?”

 

“I have more, go ahead,” Christine said.

 

“I don’t like this, either, Christine,” Toni said. “I haven’t been… taking care of Stark Industries as much as I should be lately. I’m here today because I’m back, and I’m committed. So, thank you for showing me this. It helps me… plan what’s ahead.”

 

“Yeah,” Christine said. “So, uh, are you doing anything tonight?”

 

“I’m flattered,” Toni smiled. “But… I have business to attend to,” She held up the photos, indicating her business. She smiled at Christine, turned on her heel, and walked out of the building. Toni hoped that these weapons were from months ago, but she had just been betrayed by the man she thought she could trust, so anything was possible.


	7. Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this and provide feedback.

When Toni got home, she had changed out of her dress but didn’t even bother to wipe away her makeup. She turned on the news to FBX, watching a journalist in Afghanistan reporting what was happening in Gulmira. As she watched the events unfold, she was also making some adjustments to the propulsion system.

“The 15-mile hike to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be described as a descent into hell, into a modern-day Heart of Darkness. Simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages have been driven from their homes, displaced from their lands by warlords emboldened by a new-found power. Villagers have been forced to take shelter in whatever crude dwellings. they can find in the ruins of other villages, or here in the remnants of an old Soviet smelting plant.” The news showed a blurry clip of the terrorists shooting where unarmed people were taking shelter. “Recent violence has been attributed to a group of foreign fighters referred to by locals as the Ten Rings.” 

The camera zoomed in on a man that Toni recognized. The head boss she had dropped a load of rocks on in the cave. Apparently, he survived the collapse and the subsequent explosion. The more she watched, the more rage boiled inside of her. Then, there was a cut to Stark Industries weapons, thankfully with the logo obscured. “As you can see, these men are heavily armed and on a mission. A mission that could prove fatal to anyone who stands in their way. With no political will or international pressure, there's very little hope for these refugees.” Toni stood up, satisfied with the piece on her arm and it’s new capabilities. “Around me, a woman begging for news on her husband, who was kidnapped by insurgents, either forced to join their militia-” Toni activated the propulsion, and the blast wrenched her arm back, shattered an overhead light, and sent it swinging wildly around her workshop and emitting sparks.

“Desperate refugees clutch yellowed photographs, holding them up to anyone who will stop. A child's simple question, ‘Where are my mother and father?’ There's very little hope for these refugees, refugees who can only wonder who, if anyone, will help.” Toni experimented with how she could control the emitting range and intensity of the blasts. She started shattering the glass windows to her workshop with ease. Satisfied with the alterations to the suit, she ordered JARVIS to make the same adjustments to the other arm propulsion system, and she went upstairs to change yet again into something good for the suit. A thick long-sleeved shirt and thick leggings covered most of her flesh while still being breathable and was close enough to her body that there wouldn’t be discomfort or risk of catching in the suit. She had reprogramed a series of robots whose purpose was car repairs to put her into her suit and take her out of it. She stood in the familiar spot of her garage and activated them. She stepped into the shoes, and they built the boots around her, going up her body, the suit clicked into place, and the robots bolted her inside. Some came down from the ceiling with the pieces for her arms and torso, and the procedural programming smoothly functioned until the faceplate clicked down and the heads-up display activated.

She launched into the air  “JARVIS,” She said. “Calculate a route to Gulmira, Afghanistan.” The route directed her to fly over the Pacific Ocean and eastern Asia. JARVIS said the flight time would be just under three hours at optimized flight speeds. She took off, reaching those flight speeds, and breaking the sound barrier.

When she reached Gulmira, the chaos on the news did not give the situation justice. Toni watched through the advanced imaging system as a man was being beaten and kicked as his family was sobbing a ways away. He was pulled to his knees and a gun at the back of his head to be executed. Toni had been angled down for a while now, but she let the propulsion reduce, and she dropped onto one knee in the center of it all, turning the guns away from the man. She stood up, glaring around as JARVIS in her heads-up display was doing a headcount of hostiles and civilians. The executioner opened fire on Toni, and with a step forward and an uppercut, she sent him flying into the air, flipping several times and smacking into the crumbled ruins of the second story of a home. She twisted her torso and shot a beam at another executioner who was operating the firing line. He was sent into a wall which cracked and crumbled with the force of his body.

A third man had opened fire and she sent him flying backward with a second blast. A fourth man standing beside a weapons cache received a blast from both her hands. She turned to the civilians. The remaining guards were holding guns to their heads, screaming in Arabic, Urdu, Russian. JARVIS was offering a helpful translation at the bottom of Toni’s screen, but she understood the gist. She lowered her hands.

“JARVIS, local targeting on hostiles,” She ordered. “Fire short-range ammunition.”

Small launchers rose from her shoulders, and hit each hostile and only the hostiles right between the eyes. They all slumped to the floor, dropping their weapons. Cowering mothers covering the eyes of their children looked up at him in awe. One boy broke free and ran to the man who had been beaten. 

“Where’s the boss?” Toni asked JARVIS as she walked away from the civilians, scanning Gulmira.

“Searching for heat signatures,” JARVIS reported. In a ruined house, there was a shape of a man cowering. “He has a cell phone, ma’am.”

“Let’s spook him,” Toni said with more glee than she should have. She punched through the wall beside his head and yanked him through the wall into the crowd of civilians, who were looking at their terrorizer with anger and disgust. “Activate anti voice-recognition software,” She said as she activated propulsion and the speakers. “He’s all yours,” She told the civilians, before shooting into the air. “Where is their main camp?” She asked JARVIS.

“Directions on screen,” JARVIS informed. She headed there, the scans activated. They had Jericho missiles. Then, her systems went into alert as a shell from a tank knocked her out of the air. She was sent barrelling out of the sky and into a crater. She was fine, all the systems were fine, the paint job was screwed up, but she was even angrier, now. She climbed out of the hole, standing up again. The tank went off again, but she had eyes on it. She stepped to the side and dodged the ammunition. She activated the short-range, miniaturized ballistic missile in her gauntlet and sent it at the tank. She turned around, walking toward the men behind her as the tank exploded. They opened fire, but the bullets bounced off harmlessly. She activated propulsion and took off in the air again, as JARVIS identified that there were six Jericho missiles in the facility, all in her view. She blasted the missiles, and launched herself out of the blast radius as the entire camp was instantly transformed into a burning wasteland. A small pop-up told her the likelihood of any survivors in the camp was two-point-three percent. She started soaring through the air again, the route to Los Angeles already on her screen.

“That mission was a success, I think,” Toni said.

“Yes, I believe you have critically weakened the efficiency of the Ten Rings cell in Afghanistan and reduced their tyranny on the people of Afghanistan,” JARVIS said. “While possibly violating international law.”

“I always do that,” Toni replied. She flew in silence for a while, then, a pop-up appeared in her display.

“Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes is calling,” JARVIS informed her. “Shall I let it ring?”

“No, pick up,” Toni said. “Hello?”

“Toni?” Rhodey asked.

“Who’s this?” She asked, clearly seeing him on her screen.

“It’s Rhodey.”

“Sorry, hello?” She asked again.

“I said it’s Rhodes!” he exclaimed. 

“Speak up please.”

“What the hell is that noise?” He asked. It was slightly loud with the air rushing past her.

“Oh, yeah, I’m driving with the top down,” She lied.

“Yeah, well, I need your help right now,” Rhodey said.

“It’s funny how that works, huh?” She asked.

“Yeah, speaking of funny, we've got a weapons depot that was just blown up a few clicks from where you were being held captive.”

“Well, that’s a hot spot, isn’t it?” Toni asked. “You know it’s all over the news. Good job America, I suppose.”

“We didn’t do it.”

“Wait, so someone swooped in and did your job for you?” Toni asked.

“Why you sound out of breath, Toni?” Rhodey asked. He was smarter than she gave him credit for sometimes.

“I just finished jogging the canyon, I’m still a little drained.” She tried to regulate her breathing on the phone.

“I thought you were driving.”

“I am driving, but I was also jogging,” She said.

“You sure you don’t got any tech in the area that I don’t know about?” Rhodey asked.

“Nope!” Toni lied happily, but she was sure that the Air Force had eyes on her.

“Bogey spotted!” Someone shouted on Rhodey’s line.

“Okay, good, because I’m staring at one right now and it’s about to be blow to Kingdom Come.”

A pop-up on her display warned her to F-22’s were on her tail. “That’s my exit,” She twisted to evade, trying to find cloud cover and outmaneuver the fighter jets. She activated supersonic and launched off, breaking the sound barrier. 

“Inbound missile,” JARVIS warned.

“Launch a short-range explosive at it when it gets close.” Toni exclaimed. As it exploded, she cut her propulsion, angled down, and started a rapid descent to the ground. She hoped the move would make them believe that they had a successful hit. She watched as the jets tried to go low with her, but they couldn’t fall as fast as she could. She turned around and watched the jets stop their dive and head back to where they came from. 

“Rapidly approaching the ground, ma’am. Five hundred feet,” JARVIS informed her.

“Deploy flaps!” She ordered. It helped her slow her descent as she activated propulsion and landed on a flat, mountainous space not too far from where she was held. “Call Rhodey.”

The line rang once and then twice before Rhodey picked up. “Hello?” He asked.

“Hi, Rhodey, it’s me.”

“It’s who?” Rhodes asked.

“I’m sorry, it is me.” She said. “You asked, what you were asking about is me.” 

“No, see, this isn’t a game. You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone. You understand me?”

“It’s not equipment, I’m in a suit, it’s me.”

“Oh my god, you crazy bitch, where the hell are you? Are you alright? We hit the bogey.”

“I landed,” She said. “Just so you know, I wasn’t hit because I’m better than you and your pilots.” Rhodey and her were laughing together. “Now you gonna come to see what I’ve been working on?”

“No, no, no, no, no, no. The less I know, the better. Now, what am I going to tell the press?”

“Training exercise. Isn’t that the usual BS?” She suggested. “Nothing bad happened, they just had some fancy missile practice.”

 

* * *

 

“There was a training exercise with two F-22’s overhead in Afghanistan when the attack on Gulmira and the liberation of the refugees occurred,” Rhodey was saying on TV. Toni was watching him as she was being disassembled from the suit. “It is unclear who or what intervened on the ground in Gulmira. However, I can assure you that the United States government was not involved.”

“Hey, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,” She said as a piece of armour on her upper thigh pinched awkwardly as it was being removed.

“It is a tight fit, Ma’am. Ma’am, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt.” JARVIS informed.

“Be gentle, this is my first time,” Toni said, wincing at how sexual it sounded. “I designed this to come off, so - ah! Hey!” The robots were pulling at her torso and her leg, trying to get the armor off.

“What’s going on here?” A soft voice asked. Toni turned and saw Pepper standing to her left, looking worried.

“Let’s face it, This is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing,” Toni said. 

“Are those bullet holes?” Pepper gasped, looking at the dents in the armor.

“Dents, Pepper, they’re bullet  _ dents _ ,” Toni tried to assure her.

“What the hell have you been up to?” Pepper asked.

“It’s… a long story,” Toni said. “But if the look on your face is indicative of anything, you’re going not going anywhere until I explain myself.”

“Clever observation,” Pepper said.

“Okay, fine,” Toni said. “I built this suit that is, apparently, hard to take off, because I had unfinished business. The weapons that were used against me by the Ten Rings, they still had them. My weapons, being used to kill Americans, cause that refugee crisis in Afghanistan… because of a result of my actions, my arrogance. So this is me, being responsible, and dealing with it.”

“This is you being responsible?” Pepper exclaimed in disbelief. “You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“Well, two American Jets couldn’t handle me,” Toni said. She stopped herself. Idiot.

“The thing Rhodey was talking about on the news, all of that, was you?” Pepper asked.

“Yeah,” Toni said. “But look, I’m fine. I came well-equipped.”

“I thought that you were done making weapons.”

“It’s not a weapon,” Toni said. “It can be used as a weapon, but the suit is a tool that has other applications.”

“You used it to blow people up, Toni!”

“Yeah,” Toni said. “Are you gonna tell me that it’s unreasonable for me to want every person who did this to me to be rotting in hell? I… I shouldn’t be alive, Pepper.”

“What do you mean?”

“The injuries I sustained. The situation I was put in, I should have died in that cave. But I’m alive, somehow, I got a second chance. Me. The one who was making billions off of war, and death, and destruction. I got to live. Not the farmers trying to make their living. Not the children who burned to a crisp. Not the women who were beaten and raped until they were dead. Not the doctors, soldiers, civilians, innocents. Me. So, god, Pepper, I’m going to do something with my life. I’m going to stop the people who are using my weapons, the people dealing under the table inside Stark Industries, and I’m going to do whatever I can to ensure that nobody can use my creations to kill or maim another person again. I - I just finally know what I have to do.”

“You can’t put that burden on yourself. You’ll get killed,” Pepper said.

“If I do die, it’ll be well deserved,” Toni said.

“You don’t deserve to die.”

“Don’t I?” Toni asked. “I made it all possible, didn’t I? Maybe I was ignorant to it all, but it’s still my responsibility.”

“Yes… but-” Pepper stopped herself. “You’re all I have too, you know.” Ow. The words knocked into Toni’s chest hard. “What about the people dealing under the table?”

“Yeah, they’re my responsibility to. It’s my company.”

“Do you have any idea who’s doing it?”

“I have a suspect,” Toni nodded. “I think… Obadiah.”

“What?” Pepper asked.

“The injunction… he tried talking the board into it. Thankfully, I stole his phone and managed to convince them otherwise-”

“It’s that why they called you at the party?” Pepper asked.

“Yeah,” Toni said. The party. Right. Last night. Where she and Pepper - well, she couldn’t be sure that they were about to kiss. Really, Pepper might’ve whispered something in her ear. Toni thought  - Toni wanted to kiss Pepper. But, Toni wanted to kiss any pretty girl she thought she had a chance with. She thought Pepper was pretty, but she had no chance with her. So to hear that Pepper was more similar to her than she knew… it was a lapse in judgement.

“And you think Obadiah is dealing under the table?”

“He tried to lock me out. He’s been committed to weapons this whole time. And… you know, the weapons… they’re not the same ones they had in the cave. They’re new. So, someone has to be doing it recently. And his obsession with the reactor… I don’t know. I just think…”

“Okay,” Pepper said. “So, what are you going to do?”

“Last night, I had JARVIS freeze the servers,” Toni said. “Nothing can be removed or deleted without that annoying administration pop-up. I hoped with me coming back, that whoever was doing it would try to cover their tracks by deleting things, and I would have a direct link to who was responsible. I suppose, I overlooked how much deletion happens at Stark Industries. I’ve gotten nearly four thousand alerts since last night, and even JARVIS can’t substantiate what exactly is incriminating and what is, like, porn. So, I had to shift gears. Tomorrow, I need you to go to Stark Industries, and I need you to hack into the mainframe in my office, this lock chip should get you in.”

“Why can’t you do it?”

“Because I’m not supposed to be back until next week and I have a meeting with some Agent Coulson fella here. It’ll be suspicious. If anyone asks, you’re just running errands for me. Nobody’ll be surprised.”

“What will I do in the mainframe?”

“Retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. They’ll probably be under executive files, if not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading.”

Pepper nodded, “I’ll do it on one condition.”

“Which is?” Toni asked.

“You bring this information to Agent Coulson.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, you heard me. I get… it seemed like nothing could be done in Gulmira. So, I guess I get it. But here, you don’t have to be the person to fix it all the way.”

“And what do we know about this Strategic Homeland Espionage-”

“We know it’s a government agency capable of enforcing justice in America,” Pepper said.

“Fine,” Toni said.

“Good,” Pepper nodded.

“Where’d you go last night?” Toni asked. “After I-"

“Home,” Pepper said. “Did you drink last night? You were acting…”

“Yeah, I drank,” Toni lied. “Sorry about the way I was acting.”

“It’s alright, I’m used to it,” Pepper said. Toni wasn’t happy that what happened last night was being written off as her drunken shenanigans, but she was glad that Pepper wasn’t worrying about it anymore.  “What about all the broken glass down here?” Pepper asked.

“I’ll clean it,” Toni said. “Don’t worry about it. You can take the day, I’m asking a lot of you tomorrow.”

Pepper smiled and rolled her eyes, “I’ll be upstairs, Toni.”


	8. Ransom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has read, kudos-ed, reviewed, and enjoyed Iron Maiden. Here's the final chapter.

“Okay,” Pepper was pacing through Toni’s living room the next day, moments before she had to leave, going over the plan. She was wearing ballet flats and a loose skirt so it would be easy for her to run if need be. Her hair was tied up, and she had looked up a tutorial on self-defense last night, remembering pictures of headbutts and tactical pinches. “I go through the executive files looking for the shipping manifests of Jericho missiles to connect it to Obie. If they aren’t there, I check for a ghost server-”

“Ghost drive,” Toni corrected.

“Which would have the lowest numeric heading. I search the file for the evidence of the dealing, I copy it onto a flash drive, and I come here, where you’re with the agent. We give him the information, and they go after Obadiah.”

“It’s a sound plan,” Toni said. “You’re going to do great. And hey, in case things get hairy,” She pulled a cylindrical tube out of her pocket.

“Pepper spray?” Pepper looked up at Toni.

“It’s got a chip in it. If you spray it, I’ll know, and I’ll be over there with the suit.” Toni said. “Thank you for doing this.”

 

* * *

Waiting for Pepper to come back with the file chip was driving Toni insane. She was pacing, asking JARVIS to check that everything was alright so many times she managed to annoy her own A.I. Pepper was supposed to meet here before Agent Coulson came over at seven, but it was six fifty-six, and she was still nowhere to be seen. The doorbell rang.

“Agent Coulson is here, ma’am,” JARVIS said. “Requesting to be buzzed in.”

 

“Alright, let him in,” Toni sighed, heading up the stairs to her front door. She opened the door as Agent Coulson pulled into the driveway in a cherry red 1962 Chevrolet Corvette. Toni was jealous of the car.

 

“What’s her name?” Toni asked, motioning at the car.

 

“Lola,” Agent Coulson said. “You don’t recognize her?”

 

“I think I would remember such a pretty ‘Vette,” Toni said, confused at the question. “Please, come inside.”

 

Coulson stepped inside, and she showed him to a seating area, “So, Miss Stark, I just have a couple of questions.”

 

“Well, the answers are running a little late,” Toni said. “I had my assistant go to Stark Industries to pick up some files that I thought would be relevant.”

 

“Oh, well I appreciate that.”

 

“She’s just running late; you know the traffic,” Toni said.

 

“Well, let’s do what we can without the files,” Agent Coulson said. “And then we can get to those.”

 

“Right,” Toni said. “Er… ask away.”

 

“Well, how did you escape?” Coulson asked. “The information there was always very vague.”

 

“They wanted me to build a Jericho missile,” Toni said.

 

“Yes,” Coulson said.

 

“I didn’t build one. Instead… I built a blowtorch.”

 

“A blowtorch?” Coulson asked. “With the supplies for the missile, I assume.”

 

“Yes. And I set the base on fire.

 

“And they didn’t shoot you?”

 

“Well, I made it hard, and… I had help,” Toni said. “There was another prisoner… he didn’t make it. He took a lot of bullets for me.”

 

“And you with this blowtorch… you blew up the base?”

 

“I set the munitions on fire.”

 

“How did you escape the blast?”

 

“You know the classic myth that if you hide in a refrigerator, you can survive a nuclear blast?” Toni asked. “Well, the explosion was less than nuclear.”

 

“You hid in a refrigerator?” Coulson asked.

 

“No, uh, an empty missile shell,” Toni said. “And I was lucky enough to land in the sand.”

 

“Right,” Coulson said. “Forgive me, Miss Stark, it all seems a little-”

 

Toni’s phone went off in her pants. It was Pepper. Hallelujah. She held up a hand to Agent Coulson and answered the phone, “Are you alright?”

 

“Yeah,” Pepper sounded breathless. “Obie walked in while I was downloading the files, I barely made it out.”

 

“He knows?”

 

“Probably. He was following after me until I hopped in my car. I’m breaking every traffic law we can manage to get over here,” Pepper said.

 

“Well, Agent Coulson is here, so the sooner you can get the files here, the better. I’m glad your safe.” Toni said. “Is it as bad as we feared?”

 

“Worse, Toni, it’s so much worse,” Pepper said. “I saw a video… he hired those people to kill you.”

 

“That is worse,” Toni agreed.

 

“I’ll show you all of it when I get there,” Pepper said. Then she screamed. 

 

“Pepper?!” Toni asked, standing up. There were terrible sounds on the other end of the line. Crunching metal and the tinkle of glass. “Pepper! Pepper! JARVIS, Call Happy-”

 

“What’s going on, Miss Stark?” Coulson asked.

 

There were garbled and indistinguishable noises. Then there was a voice. It was Stane. “Hiya, Toni. Quite clever of you, sending in Pepper. I wouldn’t have suspected her. It’s a pity, I like her. But there’s a way you can make sure she lives. Her life for the arc reactor in your chest. Consider it compensation for everything you’ve put me through. The exchange is gonna have to happen tonight, Stark Industries, the reactor room. And I know you’re meeting with that agent right now. If he’s there or if he comes after me, Pepper isn’t gonna do to well.” The phone hung up.

 

“What happened?” Coulson asked.

 

The story that Toni explained was one that was full of half-truths and misdirections. She talked about why she asked Coulson to steal Obadiah’s phone, that she suspected he was trying to lock her out of the company, and she was right. Toni told him that she told Obadiah to retire and that he was mad about it. That later, she suspected he was continuing to produce and ship weapons to some suspicious people, and she sent Pepper to prove it. That he kidnapped Pepper. That’s when Toni really started to lie, “He wants money, compensation for all the money I’m taking from him with my new direction. He wants a lot of it. Half a billion. I have a decent amount of liquid lying around, I can burn through my assets-”

 

“No, don’t give into the ransom,” Coulson said. “We have experience with this, Miss Stark. Did he tell you where to wire it to?”

 

“Some cayman account-”

 

“Don’t do it.”

 

“He said if I called the cops-”

 

“We’ve dealt with these sorts of demands before. We’ll be subtle.”

 

“Right.”

 

“When’s your deadline?” Coulson asked.

 

“He said I had forty-eight hours before he killed Pepper,” Toni lied again.

 

“Well, that’s time to work with. I’ll go speak to my superiors, and we’ll find him, I promise, Miss Stark,” Coulson said.

 

Once she was sure the agent was gone, she focused on what she had to do tonight.

 

* * *

 

 

Toni Stark parked her car in its reserved space at Stark Industries. The lot was empty. The factory was dark. She headed towards the reactor room, the only source of light on the entire campus. Sitting there, with a black eye and a piece of fabric in her mouth, was Pepper. When she saw Toni, she started to yell at her through her gag. Toni came closer. Pepper was handcuffed to the computers that controlled the arc reactor. Toni kneeled down in front of Pepper, set her purse at Pepper’s feet, and took the gag from her mouth. Her hair was a mess, her makeup was in streaks down her cheeks, and there was glass in her hair.

 

“What are you doing here? He’s going to kill you!” Pepper said.

 

“So I let you die instead?” Toni asked. “If one of us has to die, it should be me. This is all my fault to begin with.

 

“How very astute, Toni,” Obadiah said. He approached out of the shadows, looking fiercer and angrier than Toni had ever seen before. “You brought the reactor?’

 

“How could I have gotten here without it in my chest?” Toni asked.

 

“Fair enough,” He said.

 

“Why are you doing this?” Toni asked.

 

“Ah, well, see,” Obadiah sighed. “When I ordered the hit on you, I worried that I was killing the golden goose. But, you see, it was just fate that you survived that. You had one last golden egg to give. Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?” He shook his head. “Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?”

 

“Hopefully, a better one,” Toni said. “I’m not going to give it to you until Pepper is safe.”

 

“Come here, I’ll give you the key,” Obadiah said, holding out a key. Toni stepped closer and wrapped her fingers around it. His other hand pressed a small object into her arm. Something sharp pricked her, and she seized up, falling backward, unable to move.

 

“Toni!” Pepper exclaimed.

 

“You actually think I was here to make an  _ exchange _ with you?” Obadiah laughed. “For such a clever woman, you’re naive. You remember this one, right? It's a shame the  government didn't approve of it. There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis.”

 

“Fuck you,” Toni spat.

 

Obadiah kneeled over where she lay motionless on the ground and began to unbutton her shirt, revealing where the arc reactor sat on her chest, “Oh, Toni, it’s beautiful.” Toni felt violated, she felt insecure, she felt terrified.”Toni, this is your ninth symphony,” Obadiah said in awe. He reached down and pulled the reactor from her chest, but the cable was still attached. She was still alive, but he could hold it in his hands. “What a masterpiece. Look at that. This is your legacy. A new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands. The right hands.” He yanked hard and the reactor came out of her chest, she couldn’t move or scream in pain, although she wanted to. “I wish you could've seen my prototype. Maybe you still can, if you hold on long enough for me to go get it. It's not as… Well, not as conservative as yours. Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would have preferred that she lived.” He stood up and walked off, leaving Toni to lie pale and motionless on the floor while Pepper sobbed behind her. Toni tried to speak. She had to speak. If Pepper could live, she had to speak.

 

“Mahh bahhh,” She rasped with all the energy she could.

 

“What?” Pepper asked. Toni couldn’t speak again. She couldn’t move. “Your bag?” Pepper asked, coming to a realization. Thank god for Pepper Potts. It sounded like Pepper was rummaging through her bag. “Oh my god, Toni, you-” Pepper must have found the tools Toni brought because there was a snapping sound and the sound of her shoes coming closer. She had Toni’s purse in one hand, and her arc reactor in the other. “Okay, I can do this. I’ve done this before.” Pepper said, kneeling beside Toni and setting down her purse. “I - I need to attach this cable to the base.” She held the arc reactor over Toni’s chest with one hand and held the cable in the other. She plunger her hand with the cable into Toni’s chest cylinder and felt around for the socket, clicking the two into place. Toni could breathe easier now that her heart was online, but she was still paralyzed. “Come on, Toni,” Pepper said. “Come on, we need to go before he comes back.” Pepper lifted Toni and tried to drag her out of the room, but it wasn’t easy. “Hold on!” She said. She hurried to a corner of the lab and dragged over one of the carts they used to move parts around. She lifted Toni onto the cart so she slumped awkwardly in it like a toddler at the grocery store. Pepper tossed Toni’s purse into her lap, and pushed her out the door. The ride was bouncy and it made Toni’s head rattle. Pepper stopped the cart in front of Toni’s car, unlocked it with her keys, and pulled Toni into the passenger’s seat. She closed the door, started the car, and backed out very quickly. She took off in the direction of Toni’s Malibu mansion. Slowly, Toni felt feeling and motion return to her. She was able to wiggle her toes and move her head. Pepper was zooming down the California highway. 

 

“I though’ tha’ y’were never ever, ever, ever doin’ tha’ ‘gain,” Toni slurred at Pepper, referring to the fact that for a second time in the last month or so, Pepper’s hand was in Toni’s chest cavity.

 

“I wasn’t happy about it,” She said as she passed another car and pressed harder on the pedal. “Obadiah ran me off the road when I was on my way to you and Agent Coulson.”

 

“I’m jus’ glad tha’ you’re okay,” Toni said. “I’m sorry.”

 

“I deserve a really nice, really long vacation after this,” Pepper said.

 

“Done,” Toni agreed. There was a moment of quiet while Pepper focused on driving and Toni sat up.

 

“You had a second arc reactor?” Pepper asked.

 

“Yeah, the one you took out of me,” Toni said, mouth now much more functional. “I put it back in so Obadiah would take that one. It doesn’t have the efficacy to power a suit for very long.”

 

“How long?” Pepper asked.

 

“Probably ten minutes,” Toni guessed. “LOOK OUT!”

 

Pepper swerved as a large metal thing landed in the road in front of her. It was Obadiah Stane in his suit. It was huge, bulky, and the math in Toni’s mind reduced the time from ten minutes to six. It had probably taken a minute from lift-off for Obadiah to reach them. They just had to stall him for five minutes. She slammed on the gas, and Toni’s car jumped from going eighty to going one-twenty down the highway. The sounds of bullets ricocheted behind them. Thank god Toni had brought her armored car prototype. The exit to the mansion was on the right. Toni called the house. “JARVIS, I need you to get Mark Three ready.”

 

“The suit is assembled per your specifications,” JARVIS said. “Waiting on you, ma’am.”

 

Pepper launched the car down the exit ramp and turned the steering wheel so hard that the car drifted and the tires skidded before it started again down the road. They were feet away from the entrance to the mansion when the huge suit again landed in front, blocking the whole road. Pepper slammed on the breaks and rotated the steering wheel, the car drifted while spinning four revolutions before stopping at Obadiah’s feet. He lifted his massive hands into the air and started to bring them down on the car. Despite the reinforced frame, two massive metal hands bent the roof. Toni and Pepper slipped into their seats deeper. They were in line with the gates of the entrance. Toni nodded at Pepper, who slammed the gas again. The car broke through the gates, past the driveway, and into the living room of Stark Mansion. They were coughing and rasping, both rattled. Toni forced the door open and crawled out. Pepper did the same. They didn’t have time to be disoriented, as Obadiah in his massive suit was slowly walking toward the house. They climbed over and through the rubble, Toni had Pepper’s hand in hers and pulled her down to the workshop and garage. The suit was mostly assembled, all that had to happen was the front and bottom parts bolted together. Toni shoved Pepper in a supply closet.

 

“Seriously?” Pepper exclaimed.

 

“Stay quiet,” Toni ordered. She vaulted over her workbench and stepped into the suit. The sound of Obadiah’s clunking footsteps going down the garage ramp got louder and louder. The helmet clicked in place and the heads-up display activated just as he appeared.

 

“Come and catch me!” Toni called, activating propulsion. She shot through the ceiling and the roof of her mansion. The sound of a small rocket launching and the crunching beneath her told her that Obadiah was doing the same. “JARVIS, how much do you think the old reactor is at?” She asked.

 

“Less than thirty percent power,” JARVIS said. “Possibly as low as fifteen.”

 

“Thats a big gap, J,” Toni sighed, “Take me to maximum altitude,” She ordered. Toni was ahead of Obadiah for most of the way up because she was smaller, faster, and had more power. When she reached the icing range, she stopped and looked down. Ice had covered Obadiah’s suit, and his arc reactor was flickering, but he was gaining on her in a final burst of speed. He grabbed her by the ankle and punched her in the face. 

 

“You had a great idea, Toni, but my suit is more advanced in every way!” Obadiah exclaimed triumphantly.

 

“Seriously?” Toni laughed. “You’re using an arc reactor that only generates three gigajoules a second… and how did you solve the icing problem?”

 

“Icing problem?” Obadiah asked. The energy in his suit died, but he was still holding Toni. They both started falling to the ground, picking up speed. Because of the low power of his suit to begin with, it was impossible for to restart as they were locked in freefall. Toni blasted the joints of the arm that was holding her with maximum propulsion and the hand released. That was why you didn’t have exposed joint mechanics, Obie. She activated propulsion, hovering in the air as she watched him fell. Then, she realized that he was falling right toward Stark Mansion. Where Pepper was hiding. Shit, fuck, goddammit. Toni pushed down through the air to catch up with him and grabbed one of his hands with both arms. She directed maximum power to her boots and she pulled him away from the mansion and toward the sea. Obadiah had managed to take his faceplate off, probably because without the internal mechanisms working, there was no air and he couldn’t breathe.

 

“You’re saving me?” Obadiah asked, shocked.

 

“Saving you? How arrogant are you?” Toni asked. “I’m saving my house. And Pepper. You, I’m dropping you in the ocean.” She released his hand and watched him fall another few thousand feet, splashing off the coast. Satisfied, she changed directions and headed back to her garage, landing through the large hole in her home in the garage. It was full of smoke from when Obadiah had took off. Toni opened the supply closet door, where Pepper was curled up on the floor, breathing through the fabric of her shirt. “C’mere, Pep,” Toni said, offering Pepper her hand. “Let’s get some fresh air.” Pepper accepted it and stood up, arms encircling the shoulders of Toni’s suit. Toni held her around the waist and took off with one hand stabilizer. The other one was locked around Pepper. They went into the air slowly, sitting on the bluffs to the sea in front of the house. Toni had shed her helmet, and she and Pepper sat in the grass while they waited for the police to arrive.

 

“So, you put the old reactor in his chest because you planned that he was going to try to kill you?” Pepper asked.

 

“I mean, it made sense,” Toni said. “Kidnapping you, the ransom, it was two birds with one stone. We would be quiet, and he would have what he wanted. Men always think that you’ll be as dumb as they imagine.”

 

“And you knew I would be able to put it back in you?” Pepper asked.

 

“Pepper, I had absolute, unwavering faith in you,” Toni assured her.

 

“And… who else knew?” Pepper asked. “You told Agent Coulson.”

 

“No, I lied that he wanted money and I had more time than I did so Coulson would leave,” Toni said. “I did call Rhodey. That’s why our flying antics didn’t attract the air force tonight. He was concerned.”

 

“Of course he was concerned. What you did was concerning,” Pepper said.

 

“Are you going to be alright?” Toni asked.

 

“Well, I have been in two car accidents in the last four hours,” Pepper said. “Which is awful. And I am serious about the vacation, Toni. I need a long one. But I’ll be fine. Just a  few bumps and bruises. What about you?”

 

“I’m great,” Toni said.

 

The sound of sirens and a legion of cars coming toward Stark Mansion could be heard.

 

* * *

 

 

It was Agent Coulson who found her and Pepper first. Coulson was impressed by the suit and listened diligently as Pepper and Toni explained what had happened. Pepper still had the flash drive of Stark Industries files. Coulson told Toni to get out of the sights of the coming police and media, and that his agency would help her craft an excuse for the events of tonight.

 

Rhodey came down to the ruined house and workshop and saw Toni being removed from the suit. He was impressed, and they spoke about what had happened in detail as well. Toni thanked him sincerely for helping her with her vague requests, and she promised she’d take him flying someday as repayment.

 

Toni and Pepper were checked over by paramedics in her driveway. Toni had bruised ribs from the impact and a cut on her right hand. She also had shrapnel in her chest and her legs were amputated, but those injuries were far from recent. Pepper had suffered more that night. She had actually managed to fracture some ribs and fingers after two accidents while behind the steering wheel in such a short span of time. She had some bruising, scraped knuckles, a piece of glass had cut her side and that would need stitches. The black eye, Toni learned, was actually from Obadiah. Toni was suddenly very happy he had drowned. She got word from Rhodey when they pulled Obadiah’s suit and corpse out of the ocean, she and Pepper were in a hospital suite after being stitched and bandaged up.

 

Toni must’ve apologized to Pepper once every fifteen minutes, and Pepper would always shake her head or smile and tell Toni that it was okay. But it wasn’t okay, Toni thought, Pepper had gotten hurt because of her. Why was Pepper looking at her like she was  _ endearing _ ? Toni Stark was far from  _ endearing _ .  

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, Toni and Pepper were preparing for a press conference. They were both walking stiffly, and Toni had told Pepper repeatedly that she could and should go home. The official story that was being reported was that a piece of old Stark Industries weaponry - an unmanned drone - had gone haywire and attacked Toni’s mansion. Thankfully, Toni Stark’s android security guard “Iron Man” had helped defeat the drone and dump it in the ocean. 

 

“‘Iron Man.’ That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it. I mean, it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold-titanium alloy, and I’m a woman, but it's kind of evocative, the imagery, anyway. Besides, ‘Iron Woman’ doesn’t have the same ring, does it?”

 

“Here’s your alibi,” Coulson handed Toni a piece of paper. “You were on your yacht. We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests,” Agent Coulson explained.

 

“See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper and me alone on the island. That’s what happened.”

 

“Unfortunately, records say Miss Potts was in a completely unrelated car accident last night when leaving Stark Industries, and that’s why your party ended early, you heard about it,” Agent Coulson said. “Something that is covered in that alibi. So please, Miss Stark, just read it, word for word.” Toni skimmed it. “There’s nothing about Stane here.”

 

“That's being handled. He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record,” Coulson explained calmly.

 

“But what about the whole cover story that it's a bodyguard? He's my... I mean, is that... That's kind of flimsy, don't you think?” Toni asked.

 

“This isn’t my first rodeo, Miss Stark,” Coulson said. “Just stick to the official statement, and soon, this will all be behind you.”

 

“You've got 90 seconds.” Pepper told Toni. “Agent Coulson? I just wanted to say thank you very much for all of your help.”

 

“That’s what we do. You'll be hearing from us.”

 

“From the Strategic Homeland-”

 

“Just call us S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Coulson said.

 

“Right,” Pepper said, smiling as Agent Coulson left. “Let’s get this show on the road,” She walked over to Toni and handled her the blazer that went with her navy pantsuit. 

 

“You know, it’s actually not that bad,” Toni said as she tried to fit one arm through the blazer while still reading the paper given to her by Coulson. Pepper swooped in, even though Toni didn’t need her to, and helped Toni put on her blazer. “Even I don't think I'm Iron Man.”

 

“You’re not Iron Man,” Pepper said.

 

“Am so,” Toni replied. 

 

“You’re not,” Pepper sounded like she was smiling. She started brushing nonexistent lint and hair off of Toni’s shoulders.

 

“Alright, suit yourself,” Toni shrugged.

 

“You’re not Iron Man because you aren’t a man.” Pepper said. “But then again, you aren’t, like, Iron  _ Maiden _ either.”

 

“Oooh, Iron Maiden, I like that. Sounds pretentious. Shakespearean.”

 

“Alright, no teasing.”

 

“I’m not teasing,” Toni said. She turned around and looked at Pepper. “You know, if I were Iron Man, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She'd be a wreck because  she'd always be worrying that I was going to die, yet so proud of the woman I'd become. She'd be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more crazy about me.” Pepper wasn’t looking at her. Instead, she was fixing Toni’s collar and straightening her jacket. “Tell me you never think about that night.”

 

“What night?”

 

“You know,” Toni said. Pepper looked up. She was still looking down at Toni, because Toni was shorter than her even in heels, but she was looking less down. Her eyes were wide, and almost playful. Then they faded back to professional.

 

“You said that you had been drinking,” Pepper said.

 

“I was drinking,” Toni agreed. “I never said I was drinking alcohol.”

 

Pepper looked up at her, a strained expression on her face. “You drink alcohol.”

 

“I used to drink alcohol,” Toni said. She didn’t have to define when she stopped. It was obvious when she stopped. Toni was starting to feel like their conversation about alcohol wasn’t just about alcohol. It was about the things Toni did when she was drinking alcohol. Notably, the women she did.

 

“Are you done drinking alcohol?” Pepper asked.

 

“Well…” Toni sighed. “I’m experimenting. I want to see what life is like without alcohol.”

 

“And what do you think?” Pepper asked.

 

“I think I need more time,” Toni replied. “Before I can make some conclusions. I haven’t had enough time to evaluate all the data. It’s an ongoing project.”

 

Pepper gave Toni an… odd expression. She was smiling, she looked happy, scared, and then there was something else that Toni had never seen on Pepper’s face before. Sort of like the way she looked at the food she liked. “Will that be all, Miss Stark?”

 

“Yes, that will be all, Miss Potts,” Toni said. She walked over to the conference room, where Rhodey was wrapping up his own statement.

 

“And now, Miss Stark has prepared a statement. She will not be taking any questions, thank you,” Rhodey said.

 

Toni stood onstage and addressed the audience. “Uh, Been a while since I was in front of you. I figure I'll stick to the cards this time.” There was a slight rumble of laughter in the room. “There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and at my mansion-”

 

“I’m sorry, Miss Stark,  but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you-” It was Christine Everhart.

 

“I know that it's confusing. It is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations, or insinuate that I'm a superhero.”

 

“I never said you were a superhero,” Christine said.

 

“Didn't?” That shook Toni a little. The superhero fantasy was something she had been quite seduced by since mentioning it to Pepper. “Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic. I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, some public-”

 

“Just stick to the cards,” Rhodey whispered.

 

“Yeah, okay, yeah,” She muttered. She held up the card. “The truth is,” She looked over them and at the audience. She set the cards down. “The truth is, I am Iron Man.”

 

Immediately, every single person in the room lurched to their feet, shouting questions. Toni couldn’t help but smile.

 

* * *

 

 

With Stark Mansion still under heavy renovations, Toni was living in a presidential suite of a local international hotel. She stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a large t-shirt and lounge pants. Standing in the doorway of her bedroom was a figure obscured by the darkness of her room. 

 

“Can you find your own way out, or should I call security?” Toni asked the person, getting ready to run to her nightstand where her phone was sitting.

 

“I am Iron Man,” The man said, sounding astoundingly unimpressed. “You think you’re the only superhero in the world?” The man started to step forward. Toni backed up. “Miss Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.”

 

“You know my name, what’s yours?” She asked the man as he stepped closer. He was wearing an all-black leather ensemble and an eyepatch.

 

“Nick Fury,” He introduced himself. “Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

 

“Ah,” Toni said. Agent Coulson said they would be hearing from the agency.

 

“I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger’s Initiative,” The man said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Toni will return in Iron Maiden 2! I've already drafted it out, but I'm going to publish the Incredible Hulk first, so if you're invested in my attempts to feminize the MCU, keep an eye on my AO3 account
> 
> I also have a Tumblr account dedicated to my Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better universe: aycdicdbmcu.tumblr.com
> 
> My personal Tumblr is rosieposiepie, but it's best not to contact my blog about my fics.
> 
> I love to talk to you, so don't hesitate to reach out! And thank you all again for enjoying and supporting this fic!


End file.
